阿诺德.本涅特 Arnold Bennett
作品列表
How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day
作者简介
Novelist, playwright, essayist, critic journalist. Born in Hanley, Staffordshire, the eldest child of a pawnbroker who had bettered himself and become a solicitor. The family moved house several times and lived in Burslem and Middleport. As a result, Arnold went to several schools including the Middle School, Newcastle-under-Lyme. His father wanted him to follow his example and qualify as a solicitor but Arnold failed a crucial university entrance examination. He therefore became a solicitor's clerk, at first in his father's office and, from 1889, in London.
Arnold Bennett had shown early promise as a writer and had won a writing competition in a local newspaper as a boy. In London he began to see his writing published in popular magazines and he joined the staff of Woman magazine in 1893, later becoming its editor. His first novel to be published, A man from the north, appeared in 1898 and its success allowed him to give up other work to concentrate on writing. He lived in Bedfordshire and for eight years, from 1903, in Paris. He married Marguerite Soulié, a French actress, in 1907 and they were to stay together for fourteen years before separating. He never returned to live in Staffordshire, even though he continued to draw inspiration from the area in his work. He died on 27 March 1931 from typhoid shortly after a visit to France. Following his cremation, his ashes were buried in the cemetery at Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
A prolific, yet uneven, author, the reputation of Arnold Bennett rests on his thirty novels, and especially those set in the Staffordshire scenery of his childhood, the Potteries. He learned his craft by studying French novels that included intense description and he successfully applied this style in bringing to life the ordinary working lives of many of his characters. His best work can be found in the novels Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), all except the last being set in the Potteries. In his earlier career, Arnold Bennett was also a respected playwright, his interest in the theatre following on from his work as a critic. His most successful play was Milestones, written with Edward Knoblock.
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