The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-03-30
A Great Novelist Passes


TO think We again shall never read new book by
Arnold Bennett"
The number OF homes in the EngIish-speakng
world that have heard the above or something like It,
spoken with simple, sincere in the last three
days. Is the best tribute Of all to man who, what
his claims to immortal fame unquestioably was
one Of the greatest novests Of this generation Nor
is his popularity hard to explain
He fused realism and romanticism into something
utterly delightful. Whether 1t VIZ. sordid snudgy.
realities Of North Stafordshire pottery district or
prosac Sheets pillowcases spoons, forks and other
vast organized lntricacies of a huge metropolitan
hotel his memory missed no detail but his magma
ton lifted every trihe into the glamorous absorbing
realm Of the born story-teler.
Sex7 He neither overvalued nor undervalued it. He
used plenty Of it, without pathology or pruriency He
not Of those realists who thinks that to be real
they must be revolving. Even readers unfashionably
clean Of mind could read him with unfailng pleasure
This in itself has become something of high lit
terary distinction in the present era.
Romanticist he was in much Of his work he
liked to talk most automatically about the practical
side of it. He goated over the number of words he
wrote in year. He was proud as Trollope Of sheer
mechanical productivity.
He loved the money he earned and the luxuries it
brought him. When somebody asked him what he
WIoU6 Inc FL6CUy Lazy LOT, ne repueQ: FOR 4lQOOO'
(Ten thousand pounds sterling0
Yet any one who knows the British temperament
will put down many Of this famous Bennett brutal
tiles to Unborn British horror Of posing as an artist
and rhapsodizing about ones "art." There were also
his bleak upbringing in Stafordshire and his hard
rubs as struggling beginner in London to keep his
feet the ground and his talks free from ifalun"
The odd Wives Tale" is one of the finest novels
our time has produced-broad hrn sincere yet fasci-
natngly varied and vivacious The whole give
Towns" series is work any author might be proud to
leave behind him
He knows every dull inch of his background, every
drab detail of the life he described And he Furnished
and frightened it all with magic that is pure
genius
Buried Alive" deserved all its success as a novel
and play-an amazingly clever ideal deciouslv han
died When Bennett went in for humor as in
Denny" THE Grand Babylon Hotel" and "Ndr Pro-
hack" it usually became that well-bred playfuness
which is peculiarly the British notion of literary fun
making-rather tame and tepid for America taste but
excellent if you relish it.
Did Bennett come anywhere near the Dostoievski
he so aFdenty admired? He would have been the first
to discaim it,
But with much Of Dostoievski's genius for endow-
ing minute detail with an unbelievable interest with
much OF Dostoievskis mastery in filling big canvases
Arnold Bennett outdid the great Russian in grace
charm, and Intimacy of style that brought him al
most alongside the readers chair.
Millions Of Bennett admirers have felt since last
Friday as If they had lost close friend And that
is something even supreme genius does not ALWAYS
attain.