Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett was born in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
on the 27th May 1867. His infancy was spent in genteel
poverty, which gave way to prosperity as his father succeeded
as a solicitor. From this provincial background he became
a novelist. His enduring fame is as a Chronicler of
the Potteries towns, the setting and inspiration of some
of his most famous and enduring literary work and the place
where he grew up.
Bennett did not pursue a career as a writer
until after leaving his father's practice and moving to London
in 1889 when he won a literary competition conducted by the
magazine "Tit Bits". Encouraged to take up
journalism full-time, he became assistant editor of "Woman" in
1894. Just over four years later his first novel, "A
Man from the North", was published to critical acclaim. This
was followed in 1902 by "Anna of the Five Towns",
the first of a succession of stories which detailed life
in the Potteries and displayed his unique vision of life
in its towns.
Between the end of 1903 and 1911 Bennett lived
mainly in Paris. In Paris he met Marguerite Soulié whom
he married in 1907. During his eight years in Paris
he continued to enjoy critical success with the publication
of many novels including "The Old Wives' Tale" (1908). After
a visit to America in 1911, where he was acclaimed as no
other visiting writer had been since Dickens, he returned
to England where the "Old Wives' Tale" was reappraised
and hailed to be a masterpiece.
In 1921 he separated from Marguerite. The
following year he fell in love with the actress Dorothy Cheston. They
lived together until his death. She changed her last
name to Bennett, although they were never legally married. They
had one child, Virginia, born in 1926. In 1931 he became
ill during a trip to France, returned to London, and died
of typhoid fever. His ashes are buried in Burslem cemetery. Their
daughter, Virginia Eldin, who eventually went to live in
France, became President of the Arnold Bennett Society.
Although Arnold Bennett never returned to the
Potteries to live, he never forgot the debt which he owed
to his birthplace for giving him a unique setting for so
many of his novels, a setting which he enhanced with his
penetrating description of people and places. (Bennett
made up names for his Five Towns, but these names left nobody
in doubt about the true identity of the towns. His
Turnhill is really Tunstall, Bursley is Burslem, Hanbridge
is Hanley, Knype is Stoke, and Longshaw is Longton.) It
is perhaps unfortunate that Bennett felt that "The Five
Towns" sounded better than "The Six Towns",
and thus relegated the sixth town of the Potteries, the town
of Fenton, almost to oblivion. As a chronicler of The
Potteries he assured a permanent place in English literature
for the district.
His penultimate novel, The Imperial Palace,
was set in the Savoy Hotel. To mark the book's importance
as a great literary work, the hotel created the Omelette
Arnold Bennett, which has remained on its menu ever since. (Omelette
Arnold Bennett is also on the menu at
the Mirabelle, 56 Curzon Street, London.)
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