Arnold Bennett

CHAPTER I. MENTAL EFFICIENCYCHAPTER II. EXPRESSING ONES INDIVIDUALITYCHAPTER III. BREAKING WITH THE PASTCHAPTER IV. SETTLING DOWN IN LIFECHAPTER V. MARRIAGECHAPTER VI. BOOKSCHAPTER VII. SUCCESSCHAPTER VIII. THE PETTY ARTIFICIALITIESCHAPTER IX. THE SECRET OF CONTENT

This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, should be read at the end of the book.I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this small work, and many reviews of itsome of them nearly as long as the book itselfhave been printed. But scarcely any of the comment has been adverse. Some people have objected to a frivolity of tone; but as the tone is not, in my opinion, at all frivolous, this objection did not impress me; and had no weightier reproach been put forward I might almost have been persuaded that the volume was flawless! A more serious stricture has, however, been offerednot in the press, but by sundry obviously sincere correspondentsand I must deal with it. A reference to page 43 will show that I anticipated and feared this disapprobation. The sentence against which protests have been made is as follows:"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with some reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their full h.p."

¿Hay una combinación más intrínsecamente humana que esa guerra sin cuartel entre libertad y fiesta, violencia y sacrificio, carácter y frustración que es el fútbol? Espejo del Homo ludens descrito por Huizinga: ese afortunado personaje con el don de jugar, el verdadero sentido de su vida. El fútbol todo lo convierte en representación, en espectáculo, pero nunca dejará de ser otras muchas cosas; entre ellas, uno de esos hilos invisibles que padres e hijos se inventan con el fin de unirse para siempre. Instalados frente a una maquinita súper engrasada con millones de euros, dólares, yenes, pesos, y retransmitida urbi et orbe.

Every town should have a 'card' - someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh. Bursley in the Five Towns has a 'card': Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next?

''Deeply moving, original, and dealing with material that I had never encountered in fiction, but only in life'' Margaret Drabble.Growing up in the world of the ''five towns'' of industrial England, with their furnaces and chimneys, huddled red-brown streets, prayer meetings and small-minded bigotry, Anna is dominated by her miserly and tyrannical father. When she inherits a fortune and finds love, she struggles to break free from the constraints upon her, even though she is torn between duty and her deepest feelings. Arnold''s novel of parental tyranny and rebellion is a portrayal of a woman of great spirit, complexity and integrity.

One of fiction''s greatest chancers - the story of Denry Machin and his unceasing, ingenious efforts to become a great man.Set in the raw, Victorian world of the ''Five Towns'', The Card tells the extremely funny and tangled story of Denry Machin''s rise from mediocrity to fame through a series of ludicrous and yet perversely successful schemes. He dances, pleads, cheats and inspires his way through life in a series of set-pieces which wonderfully evoke a now long-gone world of civic balls, seaside excursions, newspaper boys and patent chocolate remedies.As everybody said after one of his most stylish coups, Denry ''was not simply a card; he was the card.''

Henry Earlforward, a shabby Clerkenwell bookseller, has retired from life to devote himself (and his wife Violet) to a consuming passion for money. Miserliness becomes a fatal illness and Bennett gives a terrifying description of its ravages. But the book''s horrible situation is saved through the character of Elsie - whose life-affirming refusal to engage with the nightmarish world of the bookseller transforms the story.Bennett wished in Riceyman Steps to create an English novel as powerful as anything by Balzac, the writer he most admired, with the same sense of great human issues being played out within the confines of a household. The result is an unforgettable work which is also a gripping description of the harsh, battered London of the period just after the First World War.

"Yes, hes one of those men that dont know how to manage. Good situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries as well as needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellows always in difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his money. Excellent flat-half empty! Always looks as if hed had the brokers in. New suit-old hat! Magnificent necktie-baggy trousers! Asks you to dinner: cut glass-bad mutton, or Turkish coffee-cracked cup! He cant understand it. Explanation simply is that he fritters his income away. Wish I had the half of it! Id show him-"So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our superior way.We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of the moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on such-and-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence whose violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily organ, a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist nicely in the country on L85 a year. I have seen an essay, "How to live on eight shillings a week." But I have never seen an essay, "How to live on twenty-four hours a day." Yet it has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain money-usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fire has.

El destino de Denry Machin parece estar escrito en piedra: hijo de una costurera, trabaja como secretario y no tiene aspiraciones que estén por encima de su clase social. Pero, de repente, todo cambia cuando descubre que tiene la oportunidad de incluir su nombre en la lista de invitados al baile de la condesa de Chell. En la fiesta, le gana una apuesta al rico Harold Etches y unos dias mas tarde, cuando su jefe lo despide, las ganancias constituyen su unico sustento economico. A partir de entonces, Denry enlaza una aventura con otra en un arduo intento por convertirse en una persona de renombre. Y cuando menos se lo espera, encuentra el amor, o eso cree el.Ambientada en la segunda mitad del s. XIX, El as nos muestra al Arnold Bennett de humor mas brillante y con mas gancho: tanto las ambiciones del personaje principal como su vida amorosa estan marcadas por situaciones ridiculas y divertidas. Ademas, la aguzada mirada satirica de Bennett sobre la gente de provincias que vive en la region denominada the Potteries, famosa por la industria de la ceramica, no hace sino potenciar el divertimento.Esta novela clave de Arnold Bennett, ambientada en la region"The Potteries"donde tienen lugar sus obras mas destacadas, hara las delicias del lector. Denry Machin lo tiene todo para pasar desapercibido en la vida: u...

Bestseller gótico escrito por uno de los mejores autores ingleses del siglo xx, según la BBC.Obra maestra de suspense.Mantendrá en vilo al lector de la primera a la última página.Autor de enorme éxit

In the autumn of 1903 I used to dine frequently in a restaurant in the Rue de Clichy, Paris. Here were, among others, two waitresses that attracted my attention. One was a beautiful, pale young girl, to whom I never spoke, for she was employed far away from the table which I affected. The other, a stout, middle-aged managing Breton woman, had sole command over my table and me, and gradually she began to assume such a maternal tone towards me that I saw I should be compelled to leave that restaurant. If I was absent for a couple of nights running she would reproach me sharply: "What! you are unfaithful to me?" Once, when I complained about some French beans, she informed me roundly that French beans were a subject which I did not understand. I then decided to be eternally unfaithful to her, and I abandoned the restaurant. A few nights before the final parting an old woman came into the restaurant to dine. She was fat, shapeless, ugly, and grotesque. She had a ridiculous voice, and ridiculous gestures. It was easy to see that she lived alone, and that in the long lapse of years she had developed the kind of peculiarity which induces guffaws among the thoughtless. She was burdened with a lot of small parcels, which she kept dropping. She chose one seat; and then, not liking it, chose another; and then another. In a few moments she had the whole restaurant laughing at her. That my middle-aged Breton should laugh was indifferent to me, but I was pained to see a coarse grimace of giggling on the pale face of the beautiful young waitress to whom I had never spoken.I reflected, concerning the grotesque diner: "This woman was once young, slim, perhaps beautiful; certainly free from these ridiculous mannerisms. Very probably she is unconscious of her singularities. Her case is a tragedy. One ought to be able to make a heartrending novel out of the history of a woman such as she.

This carefully crafted ebook: "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (A Classic Guide to Self-Improvement)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The book, written by Arnold Bennett in 1910, is part of a larger work entitled How to Live. In this volume, he offers practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to just existing) within the confines of 24 hours a day. Content: - The Daily Miracle - The Desire to Exceed Ones Programme - Precautions Before Beginning - The Cause of the Trouble - Tennis and the Immortal Soul - Remember Human Nature - Controlling the Mind - The Reflective Mood - Interest in the Arts - Nothing in Life is Humdrum - Serious Reading - Dangers to Avoid Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English journalist, novelist, and writer. After working as a rent collector and solicitors clerk, Bennett won a writing contest which convinced him to become a journalist and an author.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Lilian (Unabridged)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Content : A beautiful young girl, was a typist, though not a contented typist. She yearned after a high, impossible ideal, which involved all the more vulgar luxuries so easily obtainable in exchange for cash. The typewriting office at which she was employed had been started by Felix Grig, a middle-aged man of means, as a hobby for his spinster sister. Miss Grig suspected that Felix was more interested in Lilian than he ought to be ; therefore, she gave Lilian the sack. But this ruse was unsuccessful, for Felix invited Lilian to dine at the expensive restaurant of her dreams and suggested a little trip to the Continent. Lilian accepted with alacrity and off they went. Thereafter, chapters celebrating the delights of prosperous indolence on the Riviera. Unhappily, after a few days of this delicious existence Felix catches a cold and Lilian discovers that she is going to have a baby. Felixs cold becomes pneu- monia ; but pneumonia or not, he gets up, marries Lilian, makes a will leaving her everything, and dies. Lilian, having assisted at the usual ceremonies, returns to England and lives happily or unhappily ever afterwards in Felixs town house. Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English journalist, novelist, and writer. After working as a rent collector and solicitors clerk, Bennett won a writing contest which convinced him to become a journalist. He later turned to the writing of novels, including his most famous Clayhanger and Anna of the five towns.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Mental Efficiency And Other Hints to Men and Women" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.Mental Efficiency and Other Hints to Men and Women is the roadmap you need to follow to develop inner strength and to begin making positive changes in your life. The book stands the test of time, with nearly 100 years of hindsight... Enoch Arnold Bennett(18671931) was a novelist, playwright, critic, and essayist whose major works form an important link between the English novel and the mainstream of European realism. He also worked in other fields such as journalism, propaganda and film.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Complete Clayhanger Family Novels (Clayhanger + Hilda Lessways + These Twain + The Roll Call)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. This ebook is a collection of series of novels by Arnold Bennett, published between 1910 and 1918. Though the series is commonly referred to as a "trilogy", it actually consists of four books; the first three novels were released in one single volume as The Clayhanger Family in 1925. The books are set in Bennetts 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 of Stoke-on-Trent. Buildings described in the novels are still identifiable in Burslem. 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. The second book was Hilda Lessways, which paralleled Edwin Clayhangers story from the point of view of his eventual wife, Hilda. These Twain, the third in the Clayhanger series, chronicles the married life of Edwin and Hilda. Edwin, now released from the controlling influence of his father, finds himself free to run his business and his life, a freedom that is diminished by his wifes caprices. The fourth book, The Roll-Call, concerns the young life of Clayhangers stepson, George. George Edwin Cannon - he soon drops the surname Clayhanger, given to him upon his mothers marriage - is an architect, and represents what his stepfather Edwin Clayhanger wished to become. The characters of Edwin and Hilda are not developed further in this book: Edwin - now elevated to Alderman - appears only briefly. The central character displays an unattractive arrogance because of the wealth behind him. In an early chapter, he thinks about adding electric light to his London dwelling, and decides that he - or rather, his stepfather - can well afford it. Bennett seems to have felt that the children of the successful bourgeoisie, unless their excesses are suppressed as Edwins were, will become spoilt. Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English journalist, novelist, and writer. After working as a rent collector and solicitors clerk, Bennett won a writing contest which convinced him to become a journalist. He later turned to the writing of novels, including his most famous Clayhanger and Anna of the five towns.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Clayhanger Trilogy (Consisting of Clayhanger + Hilda Lessways + These Twain)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Clayhanger Family is a trilogy of semiautobiographical novels by Arnold Bennett. The first and best-known book of the three is Clayhanger (1910); it was followed by Hilda Lessways (1911) and These Twain (1915). They were published together in 1925. Set in the late 19th century in a drab potters town in the industrial Midlands, Clayhanger begins the story of Edwin Clayhanger as he is attempting to wrest control of his life from his tyrannical and pragmatic father. Repressed and shy, he falls in love with Hilda Lessways, a forthright young woman who, despite her attraction to Edwin, marries another man. After many years he finds her living a broken, destitute life, her husband imprisoned for bigamy and her child thus considered illegitimate. In spite of all, Clayhanger still loves Hilda. Hilda Lessways, told from Hildas point of view, chronicles her early life. In These Twain, Clayhanger and Hilda are married. He adopts her son, and the couple attempt to adapt their very different temperaments and routines to each other. Enoch Arnold Bennett (18671931) was a British novelist, playwright, critic, and essayist whose major works form an important link between the English novel and the mainstream of European realism. He also worked in other fields such as journalism, propaganda and film.

This carefully crafted ebook: "These Twain (Unabridged)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.This book is the final volume in the Clayhanger trilogy, following Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways. In many ways this is the most accomplished of the three novels.Enoch Arnold Bennett(18671931) was a British novelist, playwright, critic, and essayist whose major works form an important link between the English novel and the mainstream European realism.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Old Adam : A Story of Adventure (Unabridged)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. This ebook is a novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1913. A novel in true and humourous knowledge of the heart-relations which exist between a man and the woman he has married. A very kindly and graphic story to which the new interest of an American perspective is added. Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English journalist, novelist, and writer. After working as a rent collector and solicitors clerk, Bennett won a writing contest which convinced him to become a journalist. He later turned to the writing of novels, including his most famous Clayhanger and Anna of the five towns.