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Anna of the Five Towns
  
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Anna of the Five Towns (Hardcover)

by Arnold Bennett (Author) "The yard was all silent and empty under the burning afternoon heat, which had made its asphalt springy like turf, when suddenly the children threw..." (more)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover
  • Publisher: Academy Chicago Pub (Feb 1980)
  • ISBN-10: 0915864800
  • ISBN-13: 978-0915864805
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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First Sentence
The yard was all silent and empty under the burning afternoon heat, which had made its asphalt springy like turf, when suddenly the children threw themselves out of the great doors at either end of the Sunday-school - boys from the right, girls from the left - in two howling, impetuous streams, that widened, eddied, intermingled, and formed backwaters until the whole quadrangle was full of clamour and movement. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Real life 100 years ago, 7 Jun 2007
This review is from: Anna of the Five Towns (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
Like other reviewers, I didn't expect that much from this book. I only bought it because Bennett's work was praised in BBC4's Edwardian series. I found it truly absorbing. The ending lingers with me and I'll remember the characters for a long time. It's the first Arnold Bennett book I've read and I'll definitely search out some more of his work.
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10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Bread and butter, 26 April 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Anna of the Five Towns (Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)
A truly great read, much better than I'd been lead to believe from having read Bennett's Grand Babylon Hotel. In this one, a miserly, extremely nasty, insulting, but well-off grouch of a father is raising two daughters under extraordinarily miserable conditions in a small, dull and pious industrial town. Everybody seems to eat nothing but bread and butter and go to church. Anna is the older of the two and she and her father are very well drawn characters. There's a two-week vacation on the Isle of Man and it's all in all a great read. I feel as if I've been listening in on the lives of my grandparents and great-grandparents a hundred years ago or so. Bennett is a subtle and compelling writer with a highly readable style. You can zip right through this book.

Interesting Quote: "All knew of the calamity and had received from it a new interest in life."

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars The struggle of a woman to express herself, 18 Feb 2009
By Mrs. K. A. Wheatley "katywheatley" (Leicester, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Anna of the Five Towns (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
This is the second of Bennett's novels that I have read, both of which are tragic and somewhat pedestrian. Despite this I find them strangely appealing.

Bennett writes about the social history of the Staffordshire pottery towns he knows with great sympathy and an eye for detail. The quarrels of social status and church, business and morality, men and women are all depicted meticulously. The story arc, particularly here, seems secondary to the need to show us the daily reality of people's lives.

Anna is a young woman struggling to find her own life and voice within the confines of a small town, pitted against a dictatorial church and a miserly father. Marriage is her only way out and she is pushed into a match which shows her struggle between duty and misplaced passion.

Bennett, like Dickens documents social inequalities, but unlike Dickens he often portrays the mindset and struggles of young women, which is interesting and illuminating.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A tale of the Potteries
Arnold Bennett was one of the major chroniclers of the Five Towns (there are in fact six). This simple tale explores issues of class and gender in the Potteries at the turn of the... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Mrs. Kathleen Talbot

3.0 out of 5 stars Very dry but strangely absorbing and memorable
This is a tightly knit story of the destructive forces of evangelism and industrial expansion in a small community. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Script Angel

3.0 out of 5 stars Dull and Dry but Addictive
Anna Of The Five Towns is often dull, but the emotional arc makes it compulsive reading. Unfortunately this doesn't pay off, as the ending feels empty. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Chris Burnaby

3.0 out of 5 stars ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS
If you like Arnold Bennett and his wonderful descriptions of life in the Victorian era and the grim images of the potteries then you will like this. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2005 by R. C. Morris

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