I wasn’t looking forward to reading this book. It is a book club one and rather thick, with small writing. Never a good sign as far as our book club thinks. Then another book club participant said they had read it at school and hated it. They would try it again but dreaded it.
From page one I was smitten. The preface was great and explained why it was written and I thought “ I like this author. I hope his book is as well written as his preface”. It was. I loved the characters, the story and the descriptions. I could see it all and think of all the ways I was influenced by the author into loving the characters, despite their lives not being terribly exciting in some ways.
A real classic and can see why. Wonderful.
PS. I have just read Diane’s review and felt I needed to comment. she describes how she deliberately read the last 100 pages more slowly as she didn’t want to finish the book. Part of this comment I have repeated here
“I realised that a little way in I was deliberately reading it more slowly and putting it down to prolong the reading. I could have read it in one go. I rarely do that and usually try to get through a book quickly.”. A tribute to the book indeed.

I kind of wish I could give this 3.5 stars. There’s a lot to love here; Sophia and Constance are rich wonderful characters and very believable even while vastly different sisters. At times, the narrative dragged a bit and I struggled to maintain interest. At other times the pace picked up and it really pulled me in. I wish there had been a wider cast of characters. The Baines family lead a pretty isolated existence, and you feel that as a reader. But nonetheless I enjoyed this book overall and would recommend it to fans of Victorian novels. The narrator’s commentary is incisive and at times, downright comical. I underlined several passages with funny descriptions that I plan to revisit.

Superb tale-of-a-life - well, two actually: sisters Constance and Sophia - following their lives from teens to seventies. Nothing much of any real consequence happens to either of them, and this sort of thing is quite often a DNF for me, but the writing is SO RIDICULOUSLY GOOD that I was enthralled. Humorous tone (especially early on), poignant/moving episodes, and tremendous sense of the passage of time and the deep/real history of family. 5 stars on its own terms, but a little long-winded at times, so marking down to 4.5 and rounding down to 4.

Solid book. Also from "my list," I had low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

A double-decker about two very ordinary Staffordshire women going about the ordinary business of living. This is meant as a compliment - ‘living’ is not a word Bennett ever used lightly, and the business of living is something we go through every day.

Bennett was influenced by the French naturalists in method, but not outlook - he simply never pondered it. To me, he owes just as much to the Dutch genre painters - every household thing has its own special gleam of importance. It takes a subtle author to make you feel it all: a mere Bloomsbury snob wouldn’t have stood a chance.

A pretty quick read for a such a long book. I found the contrast of the lives of the two sisters very interesting. I love the premise of the book - that Bennett just made up stories about some old ladies he saw in a restaurant. I used to do the exact same thing with these weird guys that lived across the street from me in college. Also, I like that there are a lot of characters in this book with charming, old-timey ailments and causes of death.

Do not be put off by the facts that a) you may not have heard of this book, b) the title is vaguely off-putting, and c) it was first published in 1908. It is a wonderful book. The best way for me to succinctly describe it is to quote from John Wain's excellent introduction to the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition:
"The Old Wives' Tale has three claims to fame. It is one of the most successful attempts, if not *the* most successful, to rival in English the achievement of the French realistic novel from Balzac down through Flaubert, Zola and Maupassant. It is one of the most complete and satisfying novels of English provincial life. And it is a standing proof that a writer of the male sex can write with real perception about the imaginative and emotional lives of women."
Somewhat akin to Trollope's novels of the same period, TOWT surpasses them in pace and clarity of expression. As such, it was ahead of its time. The story follows the lives of two sisters, born into a merchandising family in Staffordshire, whose paths diverge early in life only to reconnect in late middle age. Bennett observes their lives, and the human condition, with wisdom, wit and compassion.
Highly recommended, and find the Penguin edition, if possible, to get the benefit of Mr. Wain's introduction.

Very grateful to this novel, which absorbed my attention through a stressful and difficult week.
When I first started it I felt I wasn't going to enjoy it and I must admit I might have stopped early except I am stranded at the moment in a place without much choice in books. Anyway, I uncurled my lip and read on.
The story centers on the sisters Constance (yes, constant she is) and Sophia (who does gain some wisdom). At the start of the book they are adolescents of about 16 and 15 living in a home connected to their parents' successful draper's shop. Their lives take very different routes soon after, with Constance taking the traditional path of staying at home, marrying the nerdy shop manager, and becoming an indulgent mother and capable housewife. Sophia longs for something more and elopes to Paris with a traveling salesman, who gravely disappoints her.
When they are both around 50 they are reunited and live together until their deaths.
It's a tender book with various small and large dramas, and was a worthwhile and touching read.

I listened to this over a very long car ride. Both my husband and I thought it was a very good choice. It is easy to follow and keeps your attention.

The book is about two very different sisters—Constance and Sophia. Their names clue you in to their respective personalities. Constance is constant, good-natured, kind and loving. She is a home-body who wants to stay put. She will be married to a dedicated employee in the family’s drapery store in Bursley. Bursley is modeled on Burslem, Staffordshire, England.

Sophia is sophisticated, curious, adventurous and romantic. Her dream is to travel the world. She is one year younger than Constance. She falls in love and marries too, to a rogue, a scoundrel, a philanderer who ups and deserts her. She does travel the world though. She is in France during the Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 and is in Paris during the 1871 Siege of Paris.

The two sisters’ lives are woven around the events of their time. The Old Wives' Tale is a book of historical fiction. Readers observe the socio-economic changes occurring at the end of the 19th century, the ever-growing strength of the working classes, the naissance of balloon flight, the federation of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley to become the city center, Burslem, Fenton, Longton, Stoke-upon-Trent and Tunstall). An era of modernizations and new inventions is in full swing.

The story is told in four parts. The sisters are first together in Bursley, Constance is sixteen and Sophia fifteen. It is the mid-860s. They part. The second section is about Constance--her marriage and the raising of her son. The third section is about Sophia in France. In the fourth section the two sisters meet up again, but where will that be?! They love each other, they need each other, but the two want different things. We follow them through to their deaths.

Each sister has their own loved pet, one a poodle the other a terrier. The dog escapades are very funny. The author demonstrates his keen knowledge of how pet owners view even the slightest insult or mistreatment of their dear beloved pet.

The writing is straightforward, but it is humorous too, and it captures extremely well how people do actually behave. I smiled over and over again at the lines. Realism is adhered to. Do not expect an overly sweet, cute happy story.

The book also looks at ageing and ultimately each person’s importance in the bigger scheme of things. Each person views their own life as all important, but in reality, at our death, life continues to roll on unperturbed!

David Haig’s narration of the audiobook is VERY good. Four stars for the narration! It is always easy to understand. He intones dialogs very well.

********************

Anna of the Five Towns 4 stars
The Old Wives' Tale 4 stars

Bennett in my opinion catches exactly the life and characters of middle England in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. This is one of the few novels of his I had not previously read. Engrossing.

Despite its ho-hum title, this book is anything but dull. Arnold Bennett is a big-picture guy, pulling us into the very middle of a middle class family living in the middle of England, and then sending its two only daughters in opposite directions, showing us the effects of nurture and the consequences of personality. Constance stays right where she is, running her father's successful business along with her husband. Sophia elopes to Paris with an irresponsible liar and must soon fend for herself. Who winds up richer or happier or longer-lived, and why, are just some of the points Bennett makes about ordinary human behavior. The story unfolds over fifty years and captures both town life far removed from London and city life at the heart of Paris. Bennett's writing can sometimes be a bit mundane but he is always worth bearing with, for he is funny, witty, philosophical in his observations.

An astonishing, perfect piece of work.

I’ve occasionally recognised, over the years, the not-so deep fact that the way one perceives the quality of a book can in fact depend on one’s own mood at the time. I remember once reading Bleak House as part of my student studies and I read it in 100 page chunks: well, it remains one of my all-time favourite books, a complete masterpiece; but pages 301-400 were quite poor…

Maybe I happened to be in the right, receptive sort of mood here too. Who cares – try to ensure you are too, gentle reader.

If so, you will encounter a quietly unpretentious but nonetheless moving exposition of – simple life. The soul of the book lies in its simplicity, its affectionate insights into unexceptional people. True, part of the novel uses the Franco-Prussian war and its effects on Paris as the backdrop: I found myself almost ‘resenting’ that drama! Because it is the quiet trickling of the sand in the hourglass that is the heart and soul, the glory, of this work. Quietly, almost before you realise what he’s up to, Bennett has described what growing old looks like. Not particularly in any wistful sense of losing one’s strength or faculties (though that’s part of it): but simply, an account of what time does to two normal, very human, sisters.

For me it was as if Bennett had played some kind of trick. As if I spent the larger part of the book admiring his ability as a watercolour painter of life. But when the sisters got back in touch with each other I found I had to stop reading: my eyes had got so gummed up with tears that I couldn’t see the pages properly. That’s not the effect of a watercolour; it’s the full-on blast of an oil painting, rich and profound. I had no idea Bennett had it in him – or could find that in me!

Lovely book. My only, utterly footling comment in the other direction is Bennett’s tendency to use a kind of Franglais to show off that he knows his French, even though he is writing in English translation. For example, when Sophia is unwell, the doctor does not say “get some rest” – Bennett insists on putting the words “Repose the most absolute” in his mouth. You wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t such a sure-footed, perfect piece of work – but that is plain silly.

Never mind. Bennett’s work was once derided by the luvvies of Bloomsbury – not modern enough, too rooted in the narrative traditions of the nineteenth century, and so on. Goodreads’ own, stupidly patronising summary of the book is an example of that too. Well, for me, never mind that either: the nineteenth century was when the art of the novel arguably blossomed to greatest effect, and this is bang in that mainstream for me. A desert island novel.