194:. Edwin is not aware of his father's history and takes his family's affluence for granted. He allows his ambition to become an architect to be overruled by his father and instead becomes an office junior in his father's business. He sees through the many hypocrisies of Victorian England, but he does not confront them or become his own man until after his father's final illness and death. Then he reopens his relationship with the impoverished but exotic Hilda Lessways.
814:
250:
diminished by his wife's caprices. Hilda does not conform to the expected role of submissive wife, which is partly why Edwin married her, and has opinions on matters, such as Edwin's business, that in their day are regarded as for men only. Edwin has his doubts about their marriage and is brought to mostly impotent anger by his wife just as he had been by his father.
288:, "The provincial Methodist background, Darius's penniless childhood and his rescue from the workhouse, and the growing prosperity and cultural aspirations of the family are described in sharply observed cumulative detail. The novel provides a wealth of accurate documentation about the manners and industry of the region".
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in
October and November 1915, and published in a single volume in New York in the same year and in London in 1916. It chronicles the married life of Edwin and Hilda. Edwin, released from the controlling influence of his father, finds himself free to run his business and his life, but his freedom is
189:
This coming-of-age story set in the
Midlands of Victorian England follows Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves school, takes over the family business and falls in love. Edwin Clayhanger's father, Darius, has risen from an extremely poor background, which Bennett repeatedly returns to, to become a prominent
817:
261:
The fourth novel in the series concerns the early life of Edwin
Clayhanger's stepson, George, who insists on remaining George Cannon and refuses to take his stepfather's name. George is an architect and thus represents what Edwin Clayhanger once wanted to be. (Edwin, now an
319:
said, "It is almost incredible that two novels which have so much material in common should nevertheless possess such an absolute individuality that the effect of reading one is an immediate desire to refer to the other for new light on the situations described by both".
58:
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set the seal on
Bennett's reputation as the laureate of the commonplace". The article adds that the conflict between father and son "is also a conflict between eras: between Victorian thrift and (somewhat tentative) Edwardian pleasures".
266:
of
Bursley, appears only briefly in this novel.) Unlike his mother and stepfather, George has not experienced poverty and has been spoiled by having too easy a life (a theme that Bennett had previously explored with other characters in
231:
speculated that this device of retelling the same events through another character's eyes "so far as I know, is original with Mr. Bennett. The world is filled with sequels, but such a parallel sequel is a novelty."
334:"an unsatisfactory conclusion to the Clayhanger trilogy. It lacks the unity of the first two volumes. Incidents are haphazard, and there is a suspicion of spinning out the stuff to make a volume".
338:
said, "It is all very interesting, deftly spun, accurately observed; it is certainly life, and presented without trickery or nonsense, yet we must express the hope that there won't be a sequel".
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finds that although the book "has one or two good things in it" it is "not very successful: there is something peculiarly dispiriting about the whole novel, which is hard to analyse".
313:, "On the whole, reviewers admired Bennett's ability to describe from a woman's point of view events he had described from a man's point of view in Clayhanger (1910)".
221:
marriage and pregnancy, and her reconciliation with Edwin
Clayhanger. Bennett includes some scenes from the first book retold from Hilda's perspective. Writing for
165:, published between 1910 and 1918. Though the series is commonly referred to as a "trilogy", and the first three novels were published in a single volume, as
205:
The second novel in the series parallels Edwin
Clayhanger's story from the point of view of his eventual wife, Hilda, telling the story of her
169:, in 1925, there are actually four books. All four are set in the "Five Towns", Bennett's thinly disguised version of the six towns of the
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printer in
Bursley, one of Bennett's "Five Towns" – his fictionalised version of the six towns of the
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called it "a meticulous analysis of a woman's life, but it is more scientific than passionate".
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was generally felt to be inferior to the first three books. In her 1974 study of
Bennett,
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as Hilda. The first three novels were dramatised as a 26-part serial by
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available from the website of
Literary Heritage of the West Midlands.
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was named after the first novel in the series. It runs beside the
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calls it "somewhat inferior" to the other three Clayhanger books.
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The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English
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The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English
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The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volume 4
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The third novel in the series was published in serial form in
30:"Clayhanger" redirects here. For the English settlements, see
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as Tertius Ingpen. The serial was released on DVD in 2010.
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comments, "After the critical and commercial success of
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clerk and as a keeper of lodging houses in London and
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Kemp, Sandra, Charlotte Mitchell, and David Trotter.
379:, a television drama series, was transmitted by the
41:"The Roll-Call" redirects here. For other uses, see
829:Information on the Clayhanger TV series (ATV 1976)
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834:Images from the Clayhanger TV series (ATV 1976)
666:, British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 June 2020
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62:Cover of Penguin Modern Classics edition of
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722:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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488:The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction
350:The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction
307:The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction
290:The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction
27:Novel series by Arnold Bennett, 1910–1918
718:Watson, George; Ian R. Willison (1972).
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604:"End of the Clayhanger Trilogy",
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591:"Mr Arnold Bennett's Trilogy",
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516:Mencken, H. L. (January 1912).
209:, her working experiences as a
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913:The Grand Babylon Hotel
675:"Clayhanger". WorldCat
608:, 16 January 1916, p. 4
496:(subscription required)
492:Oxford University Press
459:(subscription required)
316:The Manchester Guardian
192:Staffordshire Potteries
171:Staffordshire Potteries
937:Helen with a High Hand
905:Anna of the Five Towns
407:as Darius Clayhanger,
945:The Clayhanger Family
819:The Clayhanger Family
403:as Edwin Clayhanger,
360:Clayhanger Street in
167:The Clayhanger Family
92:The Clayhanger Family
921:The City of Pleasure
567:Drabble, pp. 225–226
555:Drabble, pp. 201–204
506:Drabble, pp. 181–183
451:"Clayhanger Trilogy"
1074:1925 British novels
1069:1918 British novels
1064:1916 British novels
1059:1911 British novels
1054:1910 British novels
1031:Those United States
996:The Great Adventure
929:The Old Wives' Tale
399:as Hilda Lessways,
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619:The English Review
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336:The English Review
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697:Drabble, Margaret
411:as Big James and
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787:These Twain
526:Archive.org
372:TV versions
332:These Twain
237:These Twain
1048:Categories
988:Milestones
757:Clayhanger
745:Clayhanger
419:References
385:Judi Dench
300:Clayhanger
286:Clayhanger
183:Clayhanger
157:Clayhanger
64:Clayhanger
18:Clayhanger
869:Works by
681:653197563
532:1 October
277:Reception
211:shorthand
115:Publisher
953:The Card
824:LibriVox
743:Text of
699:(1974).
330:thought
309:says of
298:(1908),
284:says of
264:alderman
219:bigamous
215:Brighton
81:Language
690:Sources
637:7 April
362:Burslem
97:Subject
84:English
1034:(1911)
1026:(1910)
1018:(1909)
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972:(1930)
964:(1923)
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897:Novels
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577:Quoted
257:(1918)
239:(1915)
201:(1911)
185:(1910)
177:Novels
159:Family
89:Series
71:Author
980:Plays
110:novel
107:Genre
724:ISBN
705:ISBN
677:OCLC
639:2017
534:2023
155:The
142:ISBN
34:and
805:at
790:at
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579:in
393:ITV
389:ATV
381:BBC
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536:.
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20:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.