The Old Wives' Tale

I found myself staying up hours past my bedtime completely lost in this book. Regardless of the time period of the story the attitudes and concerns of the characters are timeless. If you find it doesn't draw you in then I suggest you put it down and read it again when you are twenty years older. Many of the sentiments and situations may make more sense after you have lived a bit longer!

Having read Maupassant’s Une Vie, Arnold Bennett reckoned the time had come for his own epic realist masterpiece, so the formidable chronicler of the late-Victorian bourgeoisie Up North powered through the writing in under a year. The results follow the lives of two sisters from Bursley (now part of Stoke-on-Trent) from their years as flighty youths to their creaky descents into sciatica and rheumatism. As a realist novel, this is as painfully realist a novel as you are likely to ever read. Nowhere are the conveniently brave leaps of courage to power along the plot, the melodramatic conniptions of the early Victorian novels, or the fanciful idea of decent people prospering over the pricks. Here, we have in excruciating detail two characters stoically making the most of their lots, experiencing the small pleasures, the epic failures, the tickertape of anxieties, and the vaunting disappointments of the quotidian, in a way that is almost unbearably accurate, written with a depth of compassion and wisdom that is fairly staggering. You’ll find this novel on a par of brilliance with Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady and Gaskell’s North and South, if you have your eyeballs in the right place.

In the autumn of 1903 Arnold Bennett used to dine recurrently at a small, undistinguished Paris restaurant. Once he saw the waiters and customers mocking and scorning a "fat, shapeless, ugly, and grotesque old woman” whose peculiar mannerisms soon "had the whole restaurant laughing at her."

Reflecting that her case was a tragedy, Bennett realized that "this woman was once young, slim, perhaps beautiful." With the example of Guy de Maupassant's Line Vie in mind, Bennett decided to write a novel in which the hero and villain would be "time" as it remorselessly converts a lovely, spirited young girl into a pathetic old frump. Thus the idea for The Old Wives Tale was born,

But where Maupassant had chronicled one woman's passage from innocent youth to disillusioned old age, Bennett decided to use two, in order to to appraise and compare the effect of the forces of heredity and environment.

Both Constance and Sophia are Baineses; that is to say, fundamentally granite-willed, indomitable North of England women.

By separating them early in life, keeping Constance in the environment of her birth and sending Sophia to the totally different environment of besieged Paris, Bennett was able to show that, except for superficial differences, a person's character will remain principally what it was at birth.

Constance stoically endures her long, uneventful life in Bursley, while Sophia, as much a Baines as her sister, triumphs over a rubbish and useless husband, a completely foreign atmosphere, and even a great famine, to become a success in business. But like Constance, Sophia ends up a lonely old woman.

The triumph of The Old Wives' Tale, then, is in its subtle, meticulous study of time's erosions.

Ever so gradually the girls become less playful, less self-assured, but better able to take care of themselves and more inured to loneliness in their very different environments.

Time works its havoc on them and in the end wins a hollow victory over these two indomitable women.

With quiet confidence and steadfast self-assurance in his power to keep two plots moving simultaneously, Bennett set out quite purposely in The Old Wives' Tale to write what he knew would be his masterpiece.

He even learned penmanship so that the manuscript itself would be a work of art, as indeed a published facsimile edition of it shows it to be.

Following his usual rigid writing schedule, thinking out each episode a day in advance during long walks in the beautiful forest of Fontaine- bleu, Bennett attained his goal.

‘The Old Wives' Tale combines the ruthlessly and brutally accurate detail of French realism with the gusto and comicality that have always characterized English fiction.

If life seeks to cow you down, and cow down and submit you must, give life a hell of a fight --- the fight of a lifetime.

تاريخ القراءة الأصلي : ٢٠٠١
ممتعة وبسيطة

Not exactly boring - perhaps too well-written for that. Rather say, unmemorable.
That is, I remember the plot perfectly well. Such as it is. But, while I accept that simple, worthy people leading simple, worthy lives, sometimes making mistakes, falling out and eventually making up, are really realistic and good to have around you - they are not any too interesting to read about. Probably the only thing that ever calls this book to my mind is its description of Paris siege - the main point of which is, ironically, that ordinary people didn't notice it much.

This is a substantial tale related in straightforward, mostly linear fashion, that is nevertheless rich in detail and the evocations of the times and locations in which it is set.

Constance and Sophia Baines are two young girls growing up in the second half of the 19th century in Bursley, one of the 'Five Towns' of the Staffordshire Potteries area (where my own ancestors have some roots).

They are the daughters of parents who own a well-established and profitable drapery business.

As the two girls develop towards womanhood, they choose contrasting paths in life.

Constance, the elder, steadier daughter, chooses to marry Samuel Povey, an employee of the family business and, after the deaths of her parents, Constance and Samuel become proprietors of the business, which initially continues to prosper. After several years, they have a son, Cyril, whom Constance adores. On the death of her husband, and the departure of Cyril to London, Constance is left largely alone and lonely.

By contrast, the younger, more beautiful and flightier Sophia, elopes with a travelling salesman, Gerald Scales, who takes her to Paris, marries her, somewhat reluctantly, and proceeds to squander his modest fortune. Broke and desperate, he abandons Sophia in Paris.

With some initial assistance from a devoted friend, Chirac, Sophia overcomes a serious illness and, with a stoic determination, becomes a respected and wealthy owner of a boarding house renowned for its high standards.

Through the lives of these two women, Bennett has recorded the social and industrial progress of Midlands England and Paris through ad beyond the Franco-Prussian War.

The sisters are eventually reconciled after a period of more than 30 years; Constance a lonely, stout and staid widow, and Sophia, uncertain whether her husband is still alive, more worldly and vivacious.

However, Constance's conservative ways prevail and the two sisters continue to live together in the old family home in Bursley, mostly harmoniously, until their respective deaths.

While providing a fascinating social commentary and record of progress through the 19th and very early 20th centuries, Bennett has written an intriguing and compassionate tale of the lives of two related but different women, who remain united in the bonds of family love and underlying values despite their varied world views and personalities.

More than 100 years on, this remains a truly wonderful tale that anyone could enjoy.

A testament to the power and influence of Goodreads is the discovery of this gem which otherwise would have escaped my notice.

Bennett grabbed me with the second sentence of his preface and never let go for a moment. In many ways this 5 page preface is more compelling than the actual novel. Here he relates an anecdote of sitting in a favorite cafe when an old woman comes in talking to herself and dropping her parcels. She is the subject of immediate ridicule by the two waitresses, one old enough to know better and one young enough to be more charitable. He muses that this fat, ugly, old woman was once young, slim, perhaps beautiful but most certainly free of her ridiculous mannerisms. He continues that thought with the realization “…that the change from the young girl to the stout aging woman is made up of an infinite number of infinitesimal changes, each unperceived by her…” This is the story he writes but with two sisters, Sophia and Constance, whose lives he chronicles from girlhood through old age across a canvas that stretches from a provincial English town to Paris and back. Initially published in 1908, the story is set in the mid 19th century.

This is a book of small moments – the petty disappointments, jealousies, power struggles and vanities that are woven into every life. There are no grand gestures here. Joselito in his review absolutely nailed it when he wrote, “It's an exciting, unputdownable reading frenzy of non-events.” The lasso? Bennett’s deft observations and characterizations. I can’t think of another writer who has captured youth and aging better than he. On youth: “As for them, they marveled at the phenomena presented in Sophia’s person; they admired; they admitted the style of her gown; but they envied neither her innocence nor her beauty; they envied nothing but her youth and the fresh tint of her cheeks.” On aging: “Nothing could destroy the structure of her beauty, but she looked worn and appreciably older.” On acceptance: “The truth was that, though her bereavement had been the cause of a most genuine and durable sorrow, it had been a relief to her. When Constance was over fifty, the energetic and masterful Sophia had burst in upon her lethargic tranquility and very seriously disturbed the flow of old habits. Certainly Constance had fought Sophia on the main point, and won; but on a hundred minor points she had either lost or had not fought. Sophia had been ‘too much’ for Constance, and it had been only by a wearying expenditure of nervous force that Constance had succeeded in holding a small part of her own against the unconscious domination of Sophia. The death of Mrs. Scales had put an end to all the strain, and Constance had been once again mistress in Constance’s house. Constance would never have admitted these facts, even to herself; and no one would ever have dared to suggest them to her. For with all her temperamental mildness she had her formidable side.”

Bennett underscores that no life is ever small to the person living it. Think about that for a moment: no life is ever small to the person living it. Annie Lamott once wrote, “I may not be much but I’m all I think about.” Bennett's sentiments exactly. A pitch perfect novel – recommended without reservation.

Note: I read the Modern Library edition which shows a date of 1911 but I don't think that's right. The preface was written by Bennett which may not be included in the edition with the introduction by Francine Prose.

We do regret when some good books come to an end. This is one of them. What a magnificent and unforgettable book!! I shouldn't have waited for too long to read this masterpiece.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

4* Anna of the Five Towns
3* The Grand Babylon Hotel
3* The Strange Vanguard
5* The Old Wives' Tale
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TR A Great Man
TR Clayhanger
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