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Arnold Bennett :
London novels – Buried Alive, The Roll-Call, Riceyman Steps and Elsie
and the Child |
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The Tutor:
Martin Laux is a graduate of the Universities of Wales and Portsmouth.
He spent 30 years as a public sector manager in Hampshire and is now a
manager based in Caithness. Martin has a long-standing interest in
Arnold Bennett and regularly contributes to the Arnold Bennett
Society’s Newsletter. Martin has organised these courses at Barlaston
for the past six years. |
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The Course:
Arnold Bennett was born in 1867 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent and died in
1931 in London. Bennett left the Potteries in 1889 and thereafter
spent much of his life living in London, the Home Counties and France.
Bennett wrote over thirty novels and although most well known for his
‘Five Towns’ works he also produced a number of London based stories
like his first novel A Man from the North (1898), his first
pot-boiler The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), Buried Alive
(1908), his war novel The Pretty Lady (1918), The Roll-Call
(1918), Riceyman Steps (1923) and a spin-off long-short
story Elsie and the Child (1924), his first story of a film
Piccadilly (1929) and his epic last completed novel Imperial
Palace (1930).
Buried Alive was written as a holiday from
writing The Old Wives’ Tale (1908) in January and February 1908
and was published that June.
The Roll-Call is the fourth part of the
Clayhanger trilogy (Clayhanger 1910, Hilda Lessways 1911, These
Twain 1916). Bennett considered a fourth novel as early as 1910
however it was not started until late 1916. Riceyman Steps is
Bennett’s middle-period masterpiece and is about a middle-aged
bookseller and miser who falls in love with a widow; the novel charts
their meeting, wooing, marriage and deaths. The detailed observation
harks back to the best of Bennett’s ‘Five Towns’ writing. Elsie
and the Child is a story about Elsie the servant in Riceyman
Steps. |
Suggested
Reading:
The key texts to be examined will be Buried Alive, The Roll-Call,
Riceyman Steps and Elsie and the Child. All can be purchased
from secondhand internet bookstalls like
www.abebooks.co.uk |
Programme
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Saturday |
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4pm – 6pm |
Arrival and registration at college reception |
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6.00pm |
Dinner |
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7.30pm |
Introduction, overview of film and television
productions of Bennett’s novels with particular reference to the two
film versions of Buried Alive |
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8.00pm |
A showing of His Double Life (1933)
starring Roland Young as Priam Farrell [sic] and Lillian Gish as Alice
Chalice |
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9.10pm |
Discussion |
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9.30pm |
Close of evening |
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Sunday |
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8.30am |
Breakfast |
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9.30am |
Buried Alive and The Roll-Call |
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11.00am |
Morning coffee |
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11.30am |
Riceyman Steps |
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1.00pm |
Lunch |
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2:00pm |
Elsie and the Child, followed by
discussion |
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3:00pm |
Afternoon Tea and close of course |
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Acknowledgment |
Acknowledgement is made to Janet Blight for kind
permission to use her original sketch of Riceyman Steps |
Sessions
last approximately 1 ½ hours
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