The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-06-09
finally enabled to resign from the

finally enabled to resign from the
editorship of The Woman, and devote
his time to writing. He now made his
home in France, and published great
many new volumes in comparatively
short time. He divided his time be.
tween books Of serious nature anC
those which he wrote for revenue.
Critics censure him very much fol-
this. Cooper says: "He exhausts his
power of perceiving the reds and vel
lows, the joyous notes of life in his
purely negligible productions. The
consequence is that his mental facul-
ties are too strained and too weary to
perceive in his more serious works.
any CLINT of those brighter, warmer
colors without which, we all know
life would be too hopelessly gray even
to those Injured to the smoke-laden at
mosphere of the Five Towns"
Besides these lighter melodramatic
| stories and the Five Towns series on
which his reputation is firmly built:
Mr.. Bennett produced a number OF
volumes which come in neither class:
Three of these which are quite we'll
known are: Buried Alive, Denny, the
Audacious and The Glimpse.
The first named book, in spite of its
name, is the story of famous painter
in London, Priam Farll, who is very
shy and has always depended upon his
valet to keep him from contact with
the world. Life goes on very smooth
ly until the valet dies. leaving his mas
ter bewildered. However, he sees a
chance for escape through the mistake
| of strange doctor who takes it for
granted that it is the great painter
who has died. He allows himself to
be declared dead and has the doubt
| full pleasure of reading long obituaries
about himself, stormy discussions as
to the manner of paying him honor,
! and finally of attending his own fu-
neral when the ashes of his valet are
laid to rest in Westminster Abbey
His property is handed over to a dis
tant relative, and he is left with only
the small sum which, by his will, was
to be given to his valet. The story of
his life from this time on, and of the
way in which the world discovered
that the great man was still living
makes a very humorous and absorb
| ing tale.
The Old Wives Tale which appeared
in 1909, seems to be considered his
best work. One critic says that it is
with The Old Wives Tale that Arnold
! Bennett achieves for the first time a
work that, beyond all dispute is of the
first magnitude. DR.. Robertson Nicoll
said of it, "The story is masterpiece
and lacks only touch OF poetry to
put it in the first rank"
It is the story Of the lives of the
two daughters of a bed-ridden old
draper, and carries them through fifty
wears of hopes, hard-ships and dlsll-
| iusions. It is naturally depressing
work, but it's fneness lies in the fact
that very good story is made with
out spectacular background or ex-
ceptional characters. The scene is
laid in small manufacturing town in
middle England and the characters are
fair representatives of the human
race.
One critic says that there are very
few books in English which mirror
back so truly and with such hne
sense of proportion the relative
amounts of Joy and sorrow that enter
into the average human life. 1t pos
sesses the rare power Of making US
feel the brotherhood of these common
place people, thus making their sue,
cessive passing away personal and
intimate sorrow to each of US.
In 1910 Clayhanger, the first OF the
Five Towns series appeared. ms IS
the story of a young, tlmld rive
Townsman from the time of his leav-
ing school up to the time of his mar
rage to Hilda Lessways, who is the
subject of the second story of the ser
les. It is a story which would not be
read for entertainment alone-in truth
one is inclined to lay it aside. after
reading one or two chapters, but it
proves more interesting as one pro-
ceeds. The story has in it quite lit
tie Of the grayness and gloom Of the
Five Towns atmosphere. 1t is inter-
esting chiefly as the story OF the un-
folding and maturing Of single char
acter. The other two books OF the
series do not rank as high as Clay
hanger. In all three Arnold Bennett
dissects and analyses human impulses
! and desires to such an extent that one
wonders how he came to know SO
much about life.
| OCncr rive 1O"LS IlONcAo arc AAS.SA
with the High Hand, The Card, The
Regent, Anna of the Five Towns.
Besides being novelist Arnold
Bennett is also philosopher and has
published some very interesting little
books among which are The Human
Machine. Mental Efficiency, and the
one dealing with the problem in which
we are all interested, How to Live on
Twenty-four Hours Day. There is
great deal Of wisdom and common
sense in his way of treating such sub
jects as Controlling the Mind: Habit
! Forming by Concentration, Success
The Secret of Content. These BOOKS
are all we'll worth reading.
Another book which has ATTRACTED
attention was written after a visit to
! the United States, and is called Your
! United States. One finds it very in
, teresting account of an Englishman's
impressions of this country, which are
not at all what he expects they would
be.