After reading this I can better understand why there was such a huge uprising against Late Victoriana. It's lifeless, colourless, and turgid. The best it has to offer is a detailed description of the inside of a pottery factory in the early 1900s. Even that is neutered by the fact that the protagonist, Anna, is so impressed with everything because it's owned by her beau Mynors that no actual commentary is made about the working conditions.

Mynors is a delightful capitalist who is personally responsible for reversing a longstanding trend in craftwork of having Mondays off. Yup. He is basically Jeff Bezos in white flannels. Anna's actually in love with another man the whole time and realises on the last page but still marries Mynors because reasons.

Reading the word 'Mynors' over and over made my brain want to die in confusion between the visual contrast between 'mynah' (like the bird) and 'minor' (the pronunciation). This is a Cinderella story that cuts out all the fun parts, because Bennett's idea of describing the fun of shopping is to say 'Anna bought one sensible navy skirt'. 100% ugh.

Not the best book in any bookshelf.
It is an example of regional writing which captures place well but throws in too much metaphor and description for the modern reader. (A prime example of Victorian Literature in that respect).

This is a book which has literally pages between sequential dialogue and more pages still before the next relevant plot point.

This is a book best studied and written about (with a view towards creating better work as a result) rather than a book meant to be read and enjoyed.

I began reading this book on Friday and was immediately drawn into the scenario - for me, surprisingly so. I wanted Anna to do well, to show her miserly father, and to rescue her younger sister Agnes, from servitude to the same father. And I wondered why, her father and Anna herself, left a fortune by her mother, which her father told her about when she turned 21, why, with all that money, they chose to live poorly. Her father was known locally as a miser, and against a developing evangelical background, Anna lives her live. A surprise in the very last chapter, hinted at throughout the book, and I absolutely loved it. I finished the book on the following day.

This book is one I have been trying to read for yeas and I have finally made it through.

There are many things that can be said about this book:
The writing is beautiful, it absolutly is! Apparently many critics didn't like Bennett because he wrote realism when it was not fashionable. However, I really like the realism, I really enjoy the description style (even when I don't quite understand his references or what he is describing).

Bennett was apparently strongly influenced by Moore to set his writing in Staffordshire where he grew up, instead of in 'romantic' locations. I LOVE his descriptions of the Five Towns (there are actually six, apparently) and of the Isle of Mann. His descriptions of the landscapes of industry are inspired and sound a bit like Mordor and I loved them.

All the characters were really good... except Anna who was really, really blank and almost absent from the narrative with no internal life whatsoever. That was weird!

The first of his novels set in this location, there is a noticeable lack of humour in this book, which I am told starts to come through in later books. Now humour is normally my literary life blood, but the characterisation, the lovely writing and the strong curiosity this book inspired meant I did not miss it too much.

Having read this, then read some other reviews, I am gobsmaked by how different the interpretations of this book are from person to person. Look at the GR description above:
"Anna, a woman of reserve and integrity, lives with her tyrannical and selfish father." Sure she has integrity but it is not INNER integrity, she is just doing what other people expect her to. Bennett spells that out, several times.
Her father is selfish and by todays standards a bad father, but by the standards of the day, not so much.
"Anna defies her father's wrath" Well... kinda not really. She never actually defies his just sneaks around behind his back.

I will grant the brilliantly perceptive though: Bennett's own feelings about the society, the church and the lifestyle are subtly given, but they pack a punch.

Very glad I read it, would read more Arnold Bennett not that I have completed this one.

Anna Tellwright es una joven a punto de cumplir la mayoría de edad que sólo conoce una cosa de esta vida: el deber de ser una buena hija y una buena hermana.
.
Se desvive por ser una buena ama de casa porque su madre y la de su media hermana fallecieron. Su padre es un hombre muy rico y avaro que no sabe lo que es el agradecimiento.
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Anna vive el día a día entre su casa y la escuela donde trabaja algunas tardes enseñando a otras niñas, y ahora anda un poco revoltosa porque el soltero más codiciado de las cinco villas está interesado en ella.
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Cuando cumple la mayoría de edad su padre le da la noticia de que es heredera de una gran fortuna que le dejó su madre, con ella tendrá la vida asegurada pero, tendrá que aprender a llevar los negocios.
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Este hombre le da a la hija la noticia de que es "libre" para hacer con su dinero lo que quiera, pero la sigue manipulandola igual que antes. Los métodos del padre para cobrar las rentas de los negocios no son bien vistos por Anna y pretende hacer las cosas de otro modo.
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Anna se debate entre seguir aceptando las órdenes y el modo de hacer de su padre y el buscar ella su propio camino.
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Entre las promesas de amor de Henry y la ayuda que necesita el joven Willie (que junto a su padre le tienen alquilada una fabrica), Anna irá pasando por diferentes etapas que la harán madurar y tomar decisiones difíciles.
.
Ha sido interesante leer esta novela. Anna es una protagonista fantástica, nada típica y aunque algunas de sus decisiones son cuestionables, entiendo que las circunstancias la obligaron a tomarlas así.
Muestra una Inglaterra diferente.

The scene that really stood out for me when I read this book
many years ago was when Anna tasted chocolate for the first
time, I have never forgotten it. It didn't have quite the power
this time round but the irony was that Anna was the daughter
of the town's richest man and the girl who so blithely shared
the sweets was Beatrice Sutton whose family was to play such an important part in Anna's life.
When Anna comes of age her father gives her her mother's inheritance
- deeds and stocks and property valued at over 50,000 pounds. Anna
is in a daze, she has become a slum landlord and one of the first
duties she has to perform is to go to Titus Price's factory to
get a little something on account. The desolateness and sheer
awfulness of Bennett's vivid description of the out of repair
factory are very depressing. Price's son Will loves Anna in his
shy quiet way but she also has another admirer - Henry Mynors, a
more confidant and worldly person.
Bennett also shows the intricases of living with a miser - was
there every such a despicable person in literature as Mr. Tellwright.
When he informs Anna just how much Price owes (over 100 pounds)
Anna is horrified, calculating that that amount would pay their
food bill for two years. In another scene Anna is ashamed of the
laid supper table (small portions of cheese, slivers of beef) but
her father has just forced her to go into partnership with Mynors
as a silent partner for 2,000 pounds. Yet in another scene, Anna
in contemplation about her soul has forgotten to buy bacon and
little sister Agnes is completely distraught as she rushes to the
market with her sixpence.
The book (the first that Bennett set in the Potteries district) also
has a detailed chapter on a visit to Mynors pottery factory - Anna
is shown everything from the kilns to the biscuit ovens to the
young women who paint the designs on the china. Everything is a
model of cleanliness and efficiency but unlike "Mintons" that
Henry mentions as a maker of fine pottery, his factory specialises
in cheaply made, mass produced china. It is still a far cry from
the Price's dirty premises. The difference though is that
Tellwright is forcing them into bankruptcy, so that they will
abandon the factory because of destitution and Tellwright can
quickly install a new manager.
Things come to a head when Willie confesses he has forged Sutton's
signature on a bill of sale and Anna stands up to her father by
burning the bill to help Will avoid prison.
It made for very bleak reading and I was sorry that dear little
Agnes disappeared from the last part of the book - she was
actually my favourite character, a giving, eager little girl,
wanting so much to be happy but have such a chilling home life.
And of course Bennett was there with an awful prediction of her
future, claiming that it was often the youngest daughters in
Victorian households who were destined never to find happiness, often sacrificed so the older siblings could marry and forced to live out
their days unmarried, caring for often overbearing parents.

When I first read this book a few years ago, I was frustrated by the character of Anna who seemed to let everything happen to her without making her own choices or standing up for herself or for others which leads to her deep unhappiness. I compared her to DH Lawrence’s heroines who I thought had much more ‘Oomph’! Listening to the BBC sounds dramatisation though, with Charlotte Riley as Anna, I realised I’d missed the point. Anna is the daughter of a wealthy but miserly business man with a terrible temper. Even when she comes of age and inherits wealth, owning the buildings of a local business, she daren’t stand up to her father. When the business struggles, she obeys her father and demands the rent leading to terrible consequences. It’s a love story but Anna isn’t brave enough to break convention and be with the man she loves, she suffers the consequences and will live a life unfulfilled. That’s the point of the story and it’s a tragedy really. Bennett was a writer who became successful and wealthy, he understood capitalism and the traps it places on us, his women sacrifice happiness for convention. Lawrence, writing at the same time, was too unconventional to make money, his women are idealists willing to give up everything for love. Both are brilliant.

Anna of the Five Towns is a short, potent story about the working class of Victorian England. Bennett writes with a simple and effective flair, bringing his characters to life in a way that evokes real sympathy. The tragedy that befalls one of the factory-owners and his son, harrassed by mulitple debts, is pretty heartbreaking. All in all, I found this generally unheard of story to be something I will remember well.

First Arnold Bennett novel I've read for many years, and this was a real treasure. A fairly simple story of Anna's fight to break free from a tyrannical and controlling father in Edwardian England. Bennett's familiar Midlands pottery towns provide the setting and the story unfolds in his careful and slightly lugubrious style.

Anna is a delightful character, engaging and kind, although by 21st century standards we would probably describe her as a bit 'drippy'. But Bennett's skills at drawing us in to his characters and their lives means we really get to know them and to care about them.

So glad I've rediscovered Arnold Bennett and looking forward to reading and re-reading more of his novels soon.

© Koplowitz 2021

When I read this I really wanted Anna to slap her father over the head with her cheque book, then go out and buy her own home to live in with her sister. Sadly this book was written when men ruled the home.

What a pleasant and surprising read, well, actually I listened to the audio book. Arnold Bennett is very classic and I will be searching for more books by this author, what a gem.

The further I got into this book, the more impressed I became. Not just by the novel itself, but by the fact it was written by a man. It's such a sensitive and powerful portrayal of daughter-to-father obedience/loyalty vs. the struggle of personal conscience and sense of justice. Anna is such an appealing woman, similar to Jane Eyre in her strong sense of individuality and resistance to pressure from any quarter. I loved the revival scenes - how often do you get to see the negative side of good peer pressure? And her frank assessment of Mynors - ! She got more complex as the novel continued. I wasn't crazy about the ending, only because it didn't seem like the end yet. This is one of those rare books (like Jane Eyre was for me as a teen) that is just full of insight applicable to real life. Wish I had read it long ago. I highly recommend it.