Showing results by author "Arnold Bennett" in All Categories

Arnold Bennett’s classic book, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, has been changing the way people use and consider their time since it was first published in 1910. In the intervening century surprisingly little has changed - we still struggle to make use of our time and are often plagued by the persistent worry that we are not making the most of our lives. Bennett encourages listeners to stop merely following the rote patterns of their lives and leverage their free hours by viewing time as a commodity like money - each of us is allotted exactly 24 hours every day to spend as we see fit.

Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.

This classic personal time-management book, originally published in 1908, has inspired generations of men and women to live deliberate lives. Not just another collection of timesaving tips, this book is more of a challenge to leave behind mundane everyday concerns, focus on pursuing one's true desires, and live the fullest possible life. Reflection, concentration, and study techniques make it easier to accomplish more truly rewarding undertakings than anyone ever dreamed possible.

The Old Wives' Tale is broken up into four parts, and the lives of two sisters are laid bare: one timid and unassuming, the other romantic and adventurous. From working as children in their family's drapery shop to their later years, Constance and Sophia's journey through life could not be more different. While one travels the world and defies male expectations, the other becomes a dutiful wife and mother.

In this radical reinterpretation of six brilliant Arnold Bennett novels, it’s the 19th-century Midlands and over 10-and-a-half sweeping hours individuals rise and fall, they age, flourish, and try to keep up as the world around them changes into something unrecognisable, transformed by new technology. Fortunes are made and lost, hearts broken, empires built and deals made. These tales of aspiration and passion, damage and danger are told with Bennett's forensic, (journalist’s) eye for human psychology and a surprising degree of witty comedy.

When American millionaire Theodore Racksole and his 23-year-old daughter Nella stumble upon The Grand Babylon Hotel, an exclusive London establishment, they are so struck by the fascinating building that Theodore decides to purchase it. But soon a criminal conspiracy arises that endangers that purchase, and Theodore and Nella must turn detective to protect it.

"Buried Alive" (1908) is a witty satire by Arnold Bennett about a shy painter. Excerpt from the book: "The peculiar angle of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic - that angle which is chiefly responsible for our geography and therefore for our history - had caused the phenomenon known in London as summer. The whizzing globe happened to have turned its most civilized face away from the sun, thus producing night in Selwood Terrace, South Kensington.

Written in 1911, The Card is the story of Edward Henry (Denry) Machin, who rises from washerwoman's son to the Mayor of Bursley (Burslem in the Potteries town of Stoke-on-Trent) via a mixture of gentle deceit and personal hype. He is literally a trickster of confidence. His rise to fame is begun at an exclusive ball to which he has got himself invited, where he has the audacity to claim a dance with the glamourous but imposing Countess of Chell.

Denry Machin is now in his forties and begins to feel that he is getting old, that making money and a happy home life are not enough for him and that he has lost his touch as the entrepreneur and entertainer of the 'Five Towns'.

It is 1919 shortly after the termination of the 1st European holocaust. Henry Earlforward, a middle aged North London Bookseller, courts and marries Violet Arb, a widow who has inherited the confectioners shop opposite his own premises in Riceyman Square. Henry and Violet engage the services of Elsie as ‘charwoman’.

Arnold Bennett was an English novelist and author. Among his most popular novels are The Grand Babylon Hotel and Anna of the Five Towns. However, none of his novels approached the popularity of his little book, "How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day." It caused a sensation when first printed and continues to be printed and widely read today. In it, he offers practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to just existing ) within the confines of 24 hours a day.

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Rudyard Kipling, Guy De Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Arnold Bennett, Daniel Defoe, Edith Nesbit and M.R. James. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, while you sit back, and take in their words as they lead you on a walk to places you’d perhaps rather not visit on your own. Our stories include "My Own True Ghost Story" by Rudyard Kipling, "The Horla" by Guy De Maupassant, and more.

"The Ghost: A Modern Fantasy" (1911) is a novel by Arnold Bennett. Excerpt from the book: "I see," I observed, carrying my crushed remains out into the street. Impossible to conceal the fact that I had recently arrived from Edinburgh as raw as a ploughboy! If you had seen me standing irresolute on the pavement, tapping my stick of Irish bog oak idly against the curbstone, you would have seen a slim youth, rather nattily dressed (I think), with a shadow of brown on his upper lip.

"These Twain" (1916) is the third book in the Clayhanger trilogy, and chronicles the married life of Edwin and Hilda. Edwin, now released from the controlling influence of his father, finds himself free to run his business and his life, a freedom that is diminished by his wife's caprices. She does not conform to the period’s stereotype of a submissive wife - which is, of course, partly why Edwin married her.

"The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories" is a collection written by English writer Arnold Bennett (1867-1931). It was first published in 1912. These satirical stories draw on the author's experience of life in the Potteries, as did most of his best work. This collection includes 22 tales of life in the five pottery manufacturing towns of Staffordshire.

"Hilda Lessways" (1911) by Arnold Bennett is the second book of the Clayhanger trilogy, which paralleled Edwin Clayhanger's story from the point of view of his eventual wife, Hilda. It tells the story from her coming of age, her working experiences as a shorthand clerk and keeper of a lodging house in London and Brighton, her relationship with George Cannon that ends in her disastrous bigamous marriage and pregnancy, and finally her reconciliation with Edwin Clayhanger. In part a re-telling of the plot of Clayhanger, the book includes some scenes from the earlier book from Hilda’s perspective.

You will learn how to make the time you need to acquire what you want out of life and what you want to achieve. There is no magic formula, just an explanation of how most people use and waste their time, and Bennett shows you another way of using time to your best advantage.

"The Roll-Call" (1918) by Arnold Bennett is a novel written after the Clayhanger trilogy. It describes the young life of Clayhanger's stepson, George. George Edwin Cannon - he soon drops the surname Clayhanger, given to him upon his mother's marriage - is an architect, and represents what his stepfather Edwin Clayhanger wished to become.

Helen Rathbone meets her elderly uncle, James Ollerenshaw, in Bursley Park, after an estrangement of several years. Both are very strong-willed, independent characters. Helen has an extravagant lifestyle and likes to spend money while the old man has lived a thrifty life and intends to continue in the same way. However, they develop a friendship which progresses rapidly, and Helen moves in to James' house to look after him.

Murder mystery by Arnold Bennett, adapted in two parts by Chris Harrald. Episode 1. American tycoon Theodore Racksole buys Europe's most exclusive hotel on a whim, but is warned by the seller that he will live to regret it. Soon, a mysterious death occurs and Theodore and his daughter Nella find themselves in danger in their own hotel. Episode 2: Having bought Europe's most exclusive hotel, American tycoon Theodore Racksole is thrown in to a world of intrigue, espionage and murder. Starring John Sessions with full cast.