Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)

On 27 May 1867, Enoch Arnold Bennett was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, a small town in the middle of England, remote from the sea and the industrial bustle of London. The meager business in this small county seemed to only consist of providing ale, clothes, horses, and agricultural products. Its roads were then extremely primitive, since national business was done in the great ports (such as Bristol). Indeed, most of the English population lived south and west of London. Even in agriculture Staffordshire was remote. Yet it was in this obscure and isolated place, Arnold Bennett, one of the great 20 th century English novelists, was born and raised. Bennett was the eldest of six children, and his father, before becoming a solicitor, had been a potter and a schoolmaster. The Bennetts were strict Wesleyan Methodists; and among their neighbors, they were considered uncommonly musical, artistic, and well-read. From family and community influences, Bennett, though born with a stammer, learned to be fiercely independent, disciplined, and confident of his own abilities.

Bennett, unlike Woolf, had formal education. First, he was educated at the Middle School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, was well grounded in Latin and French. He later attended a local art school and contributed some paragraphs to the town's newspaper, At age eighteen, he entered his father's law office to finish preparing for matriculation at London University, planning to study for a law degree (which he never took). Three years later, Bennett left Hanley and became a clerk in the office of a London solicitor , never again to live in his native town).

While working in the London office, Bennett, along with a friend in the same office, collected books, read widely, and made new friends, who all thought that he would one day become a writer. At first, Bennett's efforts at a writing career were slight, consisting of a condensation of long novel by James Payn and some articles on legal details; but he soon obtained a sub-editorship of a weekly journal: Woman . He later became editor of this journal and wrote a short story that was accepted by The Yellow Book . From these experiences, Bennett resolved to write a novel. His first novel, entitled A Man from the North , was published in 1898, at three shillings and sixpence. Although it was not a great success, it was favorably reviewed and set the key for his subsequent realistic novels. After his first novel, Bennett added to his editorial work the composition of reviews and critical articles for The Academy , one of the most popular literary periodicals of the times. Bennett also began to write the sensational serial stories, such as The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), which have been called ?pot-boilers? but which were a necessary satisfaction of Bennett's suppressed romanticism. Nevertheless, he tremendously enjoyed writing such books. Anna of the Five Towns (1902), a more realistic novel and one of Bennett's most ambitious books, was finished in 1901 and published in the same year as The Grand Babylon Hotel .

As ambitious and hardworking as he was, Bennett had an incorrigible handicap ?his stammer. Nevertheless, he wanted to impress others as a man of destined success. After the publication of Anna of the Five Towns and The Grand Babylon Hotel , Bennett realized that he could make a living by writing novels and felt it necessary to develop his skills abroad. Thus, Bennett went abroad to Paris ??the home of modern realism,? where he lived for the next ten years. During that time, he married a French woman and was inspired to write the novel, The Old Wives' Tale , widely regarded as his masterpiece. When Bennett returned to England, he found himself to be one of the most influential writers of fiction ? his reputation had become colossal. Despite such celebrity, he continued writing (totaling between seventy to eighty books during his life time), publishing works such as Clayhanger (1900), The Card (1910), Hilda Lessways (1911), and These Twain (1916). In addition to these works, Bennett also wrote short stories, essays, and kept a daily journal, which filled several volumes.

After the outbreak of World War I, Bennett began to have a career outside of the literary community. He was invited to join a prestigious but secret organization (arranged by the War Propaganda Bureau) consisting of twenty five leading British authors, including John Masefield, Ford Madox , John Galsworthy , Thomas Hardy , Rudyard Kipling , and H. G. Wells . Bennett soon became one of the most important figures in this organization, publishing Liberty: A Statement of the British Case as an article in the Saturday Evening Post .

In June, 1915, the War Propaganda Bureau arranged for Bennett to tour the ?Western Front.? Bennett was deeply shocked and horrified by the conditions in the trenches and was ill for several weeks afterwards. The result of the visit was the pamphlet, Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front (1915). In March, 1918, the British Minister of Information recruited Bennett to join the new three-man British War Memorial Committee to select artists to produce paintings that would help the war effort. In addition to these prestigious positions, Bennett was also appointed director of British propaganda in France.

After the war Bennett returned to his former passion: writing novels, producing works such as Riceyman Steps (1923) and Imperial Palace (1930). He also became a director of the New Statesman , a prominent literary journal. After a prolific, successful, and awe-inspiring career, Arnold Bennett died from typhoid on March 27, 1931.

This site was created on August 6, 2005 by Qilei Hang

Date Last Modified: January 2, 2007

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