Riceyman Steps - Softcover

Bennett, Arnold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0755116003 ISBN 13: 9780755116003

Publisher: House of Stratus, 2008

Synopsis

Henry Earlforward is a miserly bookseller who marries a customer and neighbour, Violet Arb. Their life together becomes impossible because of Henry's parsimonious nature and her desire to spend on what he views as luxuries, even extending to heating and the food that is served at table. Both fall ill, but only Violet enters hospital as Henry fears for his autonomy. Violet dies, but meanwhile the maid, Elsie, has been stealing money from Henry to ensure the household carries on and also to use in making enquiries about Violet. Leaving his sickbed, Henry discovers the theft. However, his body is then discovered. Violet and her lover Joe end up working for Dr Raste, who both attended and became exasperated with the Earlforwards.

About this title

About the Author:

Enoch Arnold Bennett, the son of a solicitor, was born in Hanley, Staffordshire. At twenty-one, he moved to London, initially to work as a solicitor's clerk, but he soon turned to writing popular serial fiction and editing a women's magazine. After the publication of his first novel, A Man From the North in 1898, he became a professional writer. He moved to Paris and became a man of cosmopolitan and discerning tastes. Bennett's great reputation is built upon the success of his novels and short stories set in the Potteries, an area of north Staffordshire that he recreated as the 'Five Towns'. Anna of the Five Towns and The Old Wives' Tale show the influence of Flaubert, Maupassant and Balzac as Bennett describes provincial life in great detail. Arnold Bennett is an important link between the English novel and European realism. He wrote several plays and lighter works such as The Grand Babylon Hotel and The Card.

From AudioFile:

English novelist Arnold Bennett wrote the "kitchen sink" variety of fiction--stories about ordinary people doing ordinary things. In one of his most admired efforts, set shortly after the Great War, a miserly shopkeeper marries a widow and lets his stinginess get the better of both of them. Liberal dollops of humor and well-observed characters overlay an unremittingly bleak atmosphere. The trajectory of torturous marital doom is evident from the very first pages. The listener feels the most sympathy for their char, Elsie, who is in love with an incapacitated veteran. Narrator Peter Joyce understands, appreciates, and conveys every mote of nuance, personality, humor, pathos, and angst in a reading just short of brilliant. Nonetheless, the story's gloom prevails. Y.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Stratus
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0755116003
• ISBN 13: 9780755116003
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308