Foreword

Arnold Bennett's contributions to the history of cinema have been overlooked and undervalued, according to John Shapcott's persuasive and informative introduction to the scenario of Punch and Judy, which is published here and made available to the reading public for the first time.

E A Dupont's 1929 film of Bennett's original screenplay Piccadilly has recently been digitally restored, and the opportunity to see it on screen in London's Chinatown convinced me that Shapcott was right to suggest that I and earlier critics and biographers had unfairly neglected this aspect of his work.  It is of considerable artistic and great sociological interest.

It also shows us the Arnold Bennett who was ever ready to take on the new, the Modernist Bennett who enjoyed the challenge of the future.

Margaret Drabble 2011

ISBN 97804546832

Available from CHURNET VALLEY BOOKS 1 King Street, Leek, Staffordshire.

www.leekbooks.co.uk

 

Lord Dover & Other Lost Stories

INTRODUCTION

When editing Arnold Bennett's Uncollected Short Stories 1892-1932 (2010) I included in my 'Introduction' the cautionary note that '(i)t would be premature to claim that this collection is the definitive complete uncollected short' (p.7).  Such hesitancy was to prove well founded.  Within days of publication I was receiving possible leads for new uncollected stories, all of which were diligently followed-up. 

The most substantial, and frankly intriguing, lead came from Alan John, an enthusiast for the short story form in general.  He had carried out an extensive search of various newspaper archives online to find previously overlooked stories.

To find out more about this intriguing book, you purchase a copy from

CHURNET VALLEY BOOKS 1 King Street, Leek, Staffordshire

www.leekbooks.co.uk

ISBN 9781904546818

 

 

 

 

Arnold Bennett Society - Charity Registration 1140053

A Centenary edition of The Card

Is now available from Churnet Valley Books

Critical introduction by John Shapcott, Honorary Research Fellow at Keele University and former Chairman of the Arnold Bennett Society.

The Card is Arnold Bennett's most popular novel and its hero, Denry Machin, has become one of fiction's most memorable characters.

Denry's story has universal appeal.  It tells of the unlikely rise of its hero from a poor working class single parent family to become the admired and loved Mayor of Bursley.  Denry's cheeky chappy exploits are often questionable but his motives are always well-intended.

Whether it is looking to celebrities for business endorsements, escaping disastrous romantic entanglements or saving the local football team, Denry inhabits a world that remains instantly recognisable today.  Yet beneath all Bennett's sophisticated slapstick comedy there runs a deep vein of social commentary.

This Centenary edition reproduces the original text.  It is also lavishly illustrated with scenes from the famous 1952 film starring Alec Guinness, Glynis Johns and Petula Clark.
LEONORA

In Leonora Bennett depicts the emotional fortunes of his beautiful heroine as she is forced to come to terms with the selfish and deceitful behaviour of her husband. Bennett does this against a vividly realised backdrop of the economic and social life of a Potteries town in the late nineteenth century.

 

THE REGENT

This is a funny and affectionate story of traditional community values pitted against the glamour of London sophistication.  Bennett paints a vivid picture of two cultures in collision as Denry moves from the riotous world of the Potteries music hall to the intrigue of London's Edwardian theatres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Card

The Regent

ISBN 1-904546-37-4

ISBN 978-1-904546788-8

ISBN 1-904546-43-9
     
 
 

THE PRICE OF LOVE    ISBN 1-904546-44-7

This is Arnold Bennett's penultimate Five Towns novel and is a vivid and dramatic portrayal of provincial society about to change for ever with the outbreak of World War 1.  It is a picture of traditional private behaviour and the inevitable march of public progress, whether in commerce, transport or entertainment.  In Rachel Fleckring, Bennett has created another of his strong sympathetic heroines, forced to stamp her authority upon a male dominated world.  We also meet the memorable and monstrous Thomas Batchgrew - cinema entrepreneur, local politician and all-round dubious character.  The redoubtable charwoman, Mrs Tams, is both cleaner and conscience.  The struggle for respectability and honesty is played out in kitchens, works offices, shops and, intriguingly, the cinema.  The introduction makes a strong case for the book's central critical importance as the first English novel to fully engage with cinema and film.

A Man From The North       ISBN 978-1-904546-55-9
 
 

With the publication of his first novel, A Man From the North, in 1898, Arnold Bennett announced his arrival as a major figure on the literary scene.  Drawing upon his own early experience of life in the Potteries and as a clerk in London, Bennett delights in taking the reader on a journey from the social limitations and religious restrictions of provincial life to the worldly pleasures and sexual temptations of the city. Bennett paints a vivid and accurate picture of music-halls, restaurants, seaside resorts, lodging houses and the growth of the suburbs at the turn of the century.  He introduces the great themes of love and duty, pleasure and pain, life and death so important in his subsequent novels. From its depiction of a shop that will become famous in The Old Wives' Tale to the crowded and colourful scenes of London life, the novel takes on a central importance in setting the stage for Bennett's future masterpieces.  this is where it all begins.  Cover picture: The Man with the Glass of Wine, Modigliani.

 

The Old Wives' Tale   ISBN 978-1-904546-56-6

 

The novel paints a colourful picture of Victorian and Edwardian life in a provincial Staffordshire town.  Constance Baines watches and laments the changes that see her hometown lose its identity in the face of economic changes.  Her younger sister, Sophia, elopes to Paris where she gets caught up in the turbulent events of the Siege of Paris in 1870.  Although the two sisters lead widely divergent lives they cannot escape the limitations of their shared background, nor deny the universal truths of ageing.  Yet despite its sombre reflections, Bennett's novel displays an enchanting sense of fun and endearing understanding of human frailties.  Trade and political revolution, berserk elephants and pampered dogs, murder and punishment, marriage and betrayal - all are part of the panoramic sweep of Bennett's masterpiece.

 

Helen With The High Hand  ISBN 1 904546-29-3

Written as light entertainment, and first published in 1910, having previously been serialised in 1909 in the Staffordshire Sentinel.  Bennett himself called it an 'Idyllic Diversion'.  Appearing between those two great masterpieces The Old Wives' Tale (1908) and Clayhanger (1910),it is proof of Bennett's astounding ability to write prolifically and across genres.

The Pretty Lady  ISBN 1904546689

The book became a bestseller in 1918, despite calls for it to be banned for undermining public morality with its daring portrayal of a French prostitute operating at the heart of the establishment.  More disturbing to the modern reader than the sexual revelations are Bennett's account of bombing raids over London and the threats of mutilation faced by female munitions workers in Glasgow.

The introduction makes the case for the novel as a masterpiece of symbolic realism, unlocking hidden social, political and psychological realities.  From the shady sexual exchanges of the music-hall to the hypocrisies of high-society, Bennett exposes the hidden civilian truths behind the line of battle.

 

ALL ABOVE AVAILABLE FROM CHURNET VALLEY BOOKS 1 King Street, Leek, Staffordshire www.leekbooks.co.uk