Clayhanger - Softcover

Bennett, Arnold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1533423784 ISBN 13: 9781533423788

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

The novels are a coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England, following Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves school, takes over the family business, and falls in love. Begun in 1910, written partly at the Royal Albion Hotel,Brighton and in Lausanne. The books are set in Bennett's usual setting of "the 5 Towns", a thinly-disguised version of the six towns of "the Potteries" which amalgamated (at the time of which Bennett was writing) into the borough (and later city) of Stoke-on-Trent. Buildings described in the novels are still identifiable in Burslem (which is the fictional "Bursley") Clayhanger's father supported his extremely poor family even during his early childhood, and rose to become one of the key men in the "Five Towns". Clayhanger is not fully aware of his father's history, and therefore rather takes for granted much of his family's affluence and influence. Clayhanger allows his ambition to become an architect to be overruled by his domineering father, Darius, and becomes instead an unwilling (and underpaid) office junior in his father's printing business. He does mildly revolt against his father and his family. While he is capable of seeing through the many hypocrisies of Victorian England, he does not confront them or become his own man until his father's final illness and death hand him control of his business. The triumph of the book, then, is not in outlining Edwin's escape from the respectable bourgeoisie, but in detailing its effect on his life, and his submission to it. In one of the earlier chapters in the book, Bennett writes that Edwin had only heard of a philosopher as 'someone who made the best of a bad job' and in some ways that is what Edwin has to do in the book - survive under a stifling layer of conduct imposed by his father, his church and the society he is part of. Although his friendship with the Orgreave family provide intellectual stimulation, they are as much part of 5 Towns life as anyone; this is why Edwin ends up rejecting the unspoken offer of Janet Orgreave as partner, and falls instead for the less attractive, impoverished but exotic Hilda Lessways.

About this title

Review:

Bennett writes magnificently of the little movements of the spirit in its daily routine --Margaret Drabble

About the Author:

Arnold Bennett is famous for his realistic novels about the Five Towns - the 'Five Towns' being the pottery towns of his youth. His virtuosity as a writer was his manner of depicting simple things and ordinary people in an intriguing way for the readers. He has a warm and kind understanding for his characters, particularly when describing the intricate details of their dreary routine lives. (Enoch) Arnold Bennett was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, in 1867. Arnold followed his father into the legal profession but at the age of 21, he decided to leave his father's firm and moved to London and worked as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in ""Tit Bits"" magazine in 1889 and in 1893 became assistant editor of the journal, Woman. He published his first essentially autobiographical novel The Man from the North in 1898. His best work is contained in his novels of the 'Five Towns' which include Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910), The Card (1911), Hilda Lessways (1911) and These Twain (1916). During the First World War, he became Director of Propaganda at the War Ministry. He refused a knighthood in 1918. In 1926, he began writing an influential weekly article on books for the Evening Standard newspaper.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1533423784
• ISBN 13: 9781533423788
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344