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{{Short description|English author (1867–1931)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}

{{Infobox person
| name         = Arnold Bennett
| image        = Arnold Bennett's Photograph.jpg
|alt           = Head and shoulders of a middle-aged white man, dressed in a dark suit, with a full head of wavy dark hair swept into a substantial quiff. He has a medium-sized moustache.
| caption      = Bennett {{Circa|1920}}
| birth_name   = Enoch Arnold Bennett
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1867|05|27|df=y}}
| birth_place  = {{Nowrap|[[Hanley]], Staffordshire, England}}
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1931|03|27|1867|5|27|df=y}}
| death_place  = {{Nowrap|London, England}}
| occupation   = Novelist, playwright, journalist
}}
'''Enoch Arnold Bennett''' (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboration with other writers), and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] during the [[History of the United Kingdom during the First World War|First World War]], and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. Sales of his books were substantial, and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.

Born into a modest but upwardly mobile family in [[Hanley]], in the [[Staffordshire Potteries]], Bennett was intended by his father, a [[solicitor]], to follow him into the legal profession. Bennett worked for his father before moving to another law firm in London as a clerk at the age of 21. He became assistant editor and then editor of a women's magazine before becoming a full-time author in 1900. Always a [[Francophile|devotee of French culture]] in general and [[French literature]] in particular, he moved to Paris in 1903;  there the relaxed milieu helped him overcome his intense shyness, particularly with women. He spent ten years in France, marrying a Frenchwoman in 1907. In 1912 he moved back to England. He and his wife separated in 1921, and he spent the last years of his life with a new partner, an English actress. He died in 1931 of [[typhoid fever]], having unwisely drunk tap-water in France.

Many of Bennett's novels and short stories are set in a fictionalised version of the Staffordshire Potteries, which he called The Five Towns. He strongly believed that literature should be accessible to ordinary people and he deplored literary cliques and élites. His books appealed to a wide public and sold in large numbers. For this reason, and for his adherence to [[Literary realism|realism]], writers and supporters of the [[literary modernism|modernist]] school, notably [[Virginia Woolf]], belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. During his lifetime his journalistic "self-help" books sold in substantial numbers, and he was also a playwright; he did less well in the theatre than with novels but achieved two considerable successes with ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]'' (1912) and ''[[The Great Adventure (play)|The Great Adventure]]'' (1913).

Studies by [[Margaret Drabble]] (1974), [[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]] (1992), and others have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's work. The finest of his novels, including ''[[Anna of the Five Towns]]'' (1902), ''[[The Old Wives' Tale]]'' (1908), ''[[The Clayhanger Family#Clayhanger (1910)|Clayhanger]]'' (1910) and ''[[Riceyman Steps]]'' (1923), are now widely recognised as major works.

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Arnold Bennett was born on 27 May 1867 in [[Hanley, Staffordshire]], now part of [[Stoke-on-Trent]] but then a separate town.<ref>Pound, p. 20; and Swinnerton (1950), p. 9</ref><ref name=oglb>Hahn, Daniel, and Nicholas Robins. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198614609.001.0001/acref-9780198614609-e-2697 "Stoke-on-Trent"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312092942/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198614609.001.0001/acref-9780198614609-e-2697 |date=12 March 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland'', Oxford University Press, 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2020 {{subscription required}}.</ref> He was the eldest child of the three sons and three daughters{{refn|Three other children died in infancy.<ref name=odnb/>|group=n}} of Enoch Bennett (1843–1902) and his wife Sarah Ann, ''née'' Longson (1840–1914). Enoch Bennett's early career had been one of mixed fortunes: after an unsuccessful attempt to run a business making and selling pottery, he set up as a [[draper]] and pawnbroker in 1866. Four years later, Enoch's father died, leaving him some money with which he [[articled clerk|articled]] himself to a local law firm; in 1876, he qualified as a [[solicitor]].<ref name=odnb>Lucas, John. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30708 "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931), writer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914000605/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30708 |date=14 September 2019 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 May 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> The Bennetts were staunch [[Wesleyan Church|Wesleyans]], musical, cultured and sociable. Enoch Bennett had an authoritarian side, but it was a happy household,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Panter |first=Matthew |date=2 June 2023 |title=Retired Powys headteacher wins international book prize |pages= |work=Shropshire Star |url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/authors/2023/06/02/retired-powys-headteacher-wins-international-book-prize/ |access-date=5 June 2023}}</ref> although a mobile one: as Enoch's success as a solicitor increased, the family moved, within the space of five years in the late 1870s and early 1880s, to four different houses in Hanley and the neighbouring [[Burslem]].<ref name=oglb/>

From 1877 to 1882, Bennett's schooling was at the [[Wedgwood Institute]], Burslem, followed by a year at a grammar school in [[Newcastle-under-Lyme]]. He was good at Latin and better at French;<ref>Swinnerton (1950), p. 10.</ref> he had an inspirational headmaster who gave him a love for French literature and the French language that lasted all his life.<ref>Drabble, p. 38.</ref> He did well academically and passed [[Cambridge University]] examinations that could have led to an [[Oxbridge]] education, but his father had other plans. In 1883, aged 16, Bennett left school and began work – unpaid – in his father's office. He divided his time between uncongenial jobs, such as rent collecting, during the day, and studying for examinations in the evening. He began writing in a modest way, contributing light pieces to the local newspaper.<ref name=odnb/> He became adept in [[Pitman's shorthand]], a skill much sought after in commercial offices,<ref>Pound, p. 68</ref> and on the strength of that he secured a post as a clerk at a firm of solicitors in [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]], London.<ref>Pound, p. 71.</ref> In March 1889, aged 21, he left for London and never returned to live in his native county.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Drabble, p. 45.</ref>

===First years in London===
[[File:Western side of Lincoln's Inn Fields.jpg|thumb|alt=urban streetscape with trees and grassed area to one side and terraced 18th century buildings on the other|upright=1|Lincoln's Inn Fields in 2018]]
In the solicitors' office in London, Bennett became friendly with a young colleague, John Eland, who had a passion for books. Eland's friendship helped alleviate Bennett's innate shyness, which was exacerbated by a lifelong stammer.<ref name=odnb/>{{refn|[[Somerset Maugham]], a friend of Bennett and a fellow-stammerer, observed, "It was painful to watch the struggle he sometimes had to get the words out. It was torture to him. Few realised the exhaustion it caused him to speak. What to most men is as easy as breathing was to him a constant strain.&nbsp;... Few knew the distressing sense it gave rise to of a bar to complete contact with other men. It may be that except for the stammer which forced him to introspection, Arnold would never have become a writer".<ref>Maugham, p. 192</ref>|group=n}} Together, they explored the world of literature. Among the writers who impressed and influenced Bennett were [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]], [[Émile Zola]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], [[Guy de Maupassant]], [[Gustave Flaubert]] and [[Ivan Turgenev]].<ref>Young, p. 8</ref> He continued his own writing, and won a prize of twenty [[guineas]] from ''[[Tit-Bits]]'' in 1893 for his story 'The Artist's Model'; another short story, 'A Letter Home', was submitted successfully to ''[[The Yellow Book]]'', where it featured in 1895 alongside contributions from [[Henry James]] and other well-known writers.<ref>Young, p. 9</ref>

In 1894 Bennett resigned from the law firm and became assistant editor of the magazine ''Woman''. The salary, £150 a year, was £50 less than he was earning as a clerk,{{refn|£150 in 1894 is approximately {{Inflation|UK|150|1894|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}, according to calculations based on [[Consumer Price Index (United Kingdom)|Consumer Price Index]] measure of inflation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Clark|first1=Gregory|title=The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)|url=https://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/|access-date=4 June 2020|publisher=MeasuringWorth|date=2020|archive-date=17 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171217054349/https://measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=n}} but the post left him much more free time to write his first novel. For the magazine he wrote under a range of female pen-names such as "Barbara" and "Cecile". As his biographer [[Margaret Drabble]] puts it:
{{blockindent|He did a bit of everything. He learned about recipes and [[layette]]s, about making-up, making-ready and running-round. He reviewed plays and books&nbsp;... He acquainted himself with hundreds of subjects that would never have come his way otherwise&nbsp;... the domestic column told one "How to train a Cook", "How to keep parsley fresh", "How to make money at home", "How to bath the baby (Part One)". The knowledge was not wasted, for Bennett is one of the few novelists who can write with sympathy and detail about the domestic preoccupations of women.<ref>Drabble, p. 56</ref>|}}
The informal office life of the magazine suited Bennett, not least because it brought him into lively female company, and he began to be a little more relaxed with young women.<ref>Drabble, p. 57</ref> He continued work on his novel and wrote short stories and articles. He was modest about his literary talent: he wrote to a friend, "I have no inward assurance that I could ever do anything more than mediocre viewed strictly as art – very mediocre", but he knew he could "turn out things which would be read with zest, & about which the man in the street would say to friends 'Have you read so & so in the ''What-is-it''?{{'}}"<ref>Hepburn (2013), p. 11</ref> He was happy to write for popular journals like ''Hearth and Home'' or for the highbrow ''[[The Academy (periodical)|The Academy]]''.<ref>Drabble, p. 59</ref>

His debut novel, ''A Man from the North'', completed in 1896, was published two years later, by [[John Lane (publisher)|John Lane]], whose reader, [[John Buchan]], recommended it for publication.<ref>Drabble, p. 66</ref> It elicited a letter of praise from [[Joseph Conrad]] and was well and widely reviewed, but Bennett's profits from the sale of the book were less than the cost of having it typed.<ref>Young, p. 9; and Drabble, p. 78</ref>

In 1896 Bennett was promoted to be editor of ''Woman''; by then he had set his sights on a career as a full-time author, but he served as editor for four years.<ref name=odnb/> During that time he wrote two popular books, described by the critic [[John Lucas (poet)|John Lucas]] as "[[pot-boilers]]": ''Journalism for Women'' (1898) and ''Polite Farces for the Drawing Room'' (1899). He also began work on a second novel, ''[[Anna of the Five Towns]]'', the five towns being Bennett's lightly fictionalised version of the [[Staffordshire Potteries]], where he grew up.<ref name=ocel>Birch, Dinah (ed).  [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-720. "Bennett, Arnold"], ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2009 {{subscription required}}</ref>

===Freelance; Paris===
In 1900 Bennett resigned his post at ''Woman'', and left London to set up house at Trinity Hall Farm, near the village of [[Hockliffe]] in Bedfordshire, where he made a home not only for himself but for his parents and younger sister. He completed ''Anna of the Five Towns'' in 1901; it was published the following year, as was its successor, ''[[The Grand Babylon Hotel]]''. The latter, an extravagant story of crime in high society, sold 50,000 copies in hardback and was almost immediately translated into four languages.<ref>Carey, p. 153</ref> By this stage he was confident enough in his abilities to tell a friend:
{{blockindent|Although I am 33 & I have not made a name, I infallibly know that I shall make a name, & that soon. But I should like to be a legend. I think I have settled in my own mind that my work will never be better than third rate, judged by the high standards, but I shall be cunning enough to make it impose on my contemporaries.<ref>Bennett and Hepburn, p. 151</ref>|}}

[[File:26 rue d'Aumale Paris.jpg|thumb|left|alt=exterior of 19th-century Parisian appartement block|upright|Rue d'Aumale, Bennett's second address in Paris]]
In January 1902 Enoch Bennett died, after a decline into dementia.<ref>Drabble, pp. 88–89</ref> His widow chose to move back to Burslem, and Bennett's sister married shortly afterwards. With no dependants, Bennett − always a devotee of French culture<ref name=odnb/> − decided to move to Paris; he took up residence there in March 1903.<ref name="Drabble, p. 104">Pound, p. 127</ref> Biographers have speculated on his precise reasons for doing so.  Drabble suggests that perhaps "he was hoping for some kind of liberation. He was thirty-five and unmarried";<ref name="Drabble, p. 104"/> Lucas writes that it was almost certainly Bennett's desire to be recognised as a serious artist that prompted his move;<ref name=odnb/> according to his friend and colleague [[Frank Swinnerton]], Bennett was following in the footsteps of George Moore by going to live in "the home of modern realism";<ref name=s14>Swinnerton (1950), p. 14</ref> in the view of the biographer [[Reginald Pound]] it was "to begin his career as a man of the world".<ref name="Drabble, p. 104"/> The [[9th arrondissement of Paris]] was Bennett's home for the next five years, first in the rue de Calais, near the [[Place Pigalle]], and then the more upmarket rue d'Aumale.<ref>Drabble, pp. 109 and 150; and Pound, p. 156</ref>

Life in Paris evidently helped Bennett overcome much of his remaining shyness with women.<ref>Drabble, pp. 105–106</ref> His journals for his early months in Paris mention a young woman identified as "C" or "Chichi", who was a [[chorus girl]];<ref>Bennett (1954), pp. 71–72, 76, 81 and 84–86</ref> the journals – or at least the cautiously selected extracts published since his death<ref name=lhd/> – do not record the precise nature of the relationship, but the two spent a considerable amount of time together.<ref>Pound, pp. 128–129; and Drabble, pp. 10, and 105–106</ref>

In a restaurant where he dined frequently a trivial incident in 1903 gave Bennett the germ of an idea for the novel generally regarded as his masterpiece.<ref name=s14/><ref>Sutherland, John. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-2180 "Old Wives' Tale, The"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312092950/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-2180 |date=12 March 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English'', Oxford University Press, 1996. Retrieved 31 May 2020 {{subscription required}}</ref> A grotesque old woman came in and caused a fuss; the beautiful young waitress laughed at her, and Bennett was struck by the thought that the old woman had once been as young and lovely as the waitress.<ref>Bennett (1954), pp. 76–77</ref> From this grew the story of two contrasting sisters in ''[[The Old Wives' Tale]]''.<ref>Pound, pp. 132–133</ref> He did not begin work on that novel until 1907, before which he wrote ten others, some "sadly undistinguished", in the view of his biographer Kenneth Young.<ref>Young, p. 10</ref> Throughout his career, Bennett interspersed his best novels with some that his biographers and others have labelled pot-boilers.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Drabble, p. 263; Young, p. 10; and Hepburn (2013), p. 37</ref>

===Marriage; Fontainebleau and US visit===
[[File:Picture of Arnold Bennett.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Head and torso of standing middle-aged white man, in a dark suit, with full head of wavy dark hair, looking to the side. He has a neat, medium-sized moustache|Bennett, {{Circa|1910}}]]
In 1905 Bennett became engaged to Eleanor Green, a member of an eccentric and capricious American family living in Paris, but at the last moment, after the wedding invitations had been sent out, she broke off the engagement and almost immediately married a fellow American.<ref>Pound, p. 163; and Drabble, p. 129</ref> Drabble comments that Bennett was well rid of her, but it was a painful episode in his life.<ref>Drabble, p. 133</ref> In early 1907 he met Marguerite Soulié (1874–1960), who soon became first a friend and then a lover.<ref>Drabble, p. 137</ref> In May he was taken ill with a severe gastric complaint, and Marguerite moved into his flat to look after him. They became still closer, and in July 1907, shortly after his fortieth birthday, they were married at the [[Mairie]] of the 9th arrondissement.<ref>Drabble, p. 140</ref> The marriage was childless.<ref name=dnb>Swinnerton, Frank. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-30708 "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603143800/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-30708 |date=3 June 2018 }}, ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1949. Retrieved 1 June 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Early in 1908 the couple moved from the rue d'Aumale to the Villa des Néfliers in [[Avon, Seine-et-Marne|Fontainebleau-Avon]], about 40 miles (64&nbsp;km) south-east of Paris.<ref>Drabble, p. 250</ref>{{refn|"Néfliers" translates into English as "[[medlar]] trees".<ref>Corréard ''et al'', p. 1433</ref> In Bennett's time the house was called "Villa ''des'' Néfliers",<ref>Pound, pp. 187, 209 and 220</ref> but is evidently now the "Villa ''les'' Néfliers".<ref name=about>[https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/about-the-society/ "About the Society"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325060107/http://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/about-the-society/ |date=25 March 2019 }}, Arnold Bennett Society. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref><ref name=ts>[http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/2013/11/arnold-bennett-in-avon-seine-et-marne.html "Arnold Bennett in Avon, Seine-et-Marne"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305040350/http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/2013/11/arnold-bennett-in-avon-seine-et-marne.html |date=5 March 2018 }}, Dr Tony Shaw. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref>|group=n}}

Lucas comments that the best of the novels written while in France – ''Whom God Hath Joined'' (1906), ''The Old Wives' Tale'' (1908), and ''[[Clayhanger]]'' (1910) – "justly established Bennett as a major exponent of realistic fiction".<ref name=odnb/> In addition to these, Bennett published lighter novels such as ''[[The Card]]'' (1911). His output of literary journalism included articles for [[T. P. O'Connor]]'s ''[[T. P.'s Weekly]]'' and the left-wing ''[[The New Age]]''; his pieces for the latter, published under a pen-name, were concise literary essays aimed at "the general cultivated reader",<ref name=odnb/> a form taken up by a later generation of writers including [[J. B. Priestley]] and [[V. S. Pritchett]].<ref name=odnb/>

In 1911 Bennett made a financially rewarding visit to the US, which he later recorded in his 1912 book ''[[Those United States]]''. Crossing the Atlantic aboard the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'', he visited not only New York and Boston but also Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington and Philadelphia in a tour that was described by US publisher [[George H. Doran Company|George Doran]] as "one of continuous triumph":<ref>Pound, p. 228)</ref> in the first three days of his stay in New York he was interviewed 26 times by journalists.<ref>Donovan, p. 103</ref> While rival [[E.P. Dutton]] had secured rights to such Bennett novels as ''Hilda Lessways'' and ''the Card'' (retitled ''Denry the Audacious''), Doran, who travelled everywhere with Bennett while in America, was the publisher of Bennett's wildly successful 'pocket philosophies' ''[[How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day]]'' and ''Mental Efficiency.'' Of these books the influential critic [[Willard Huntington Wright]] wrote that Bennett had "turned preacher and a jolly good preacher he is".<ref>Donovan, p. 100</ref> While in the US Bennett also sold the serial rights of his forthcoming novel, ''The Price of Love'' (1913–14), to ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harpers]]'' for £2,000, eight essays to ''[[Metropolitan Magazine (New York City)|Metropolitan]]'' magazine for a total of  £1,200, and the American rights of a successor to ''Clayhanger'' for £3,000.<ref name=odnb/>

During his ten years in France he had gone from a moderately well-known writer enjoying modest sales to outstanding success. Swinnerton comments that in addition to his large sales, Bennett's critical prestige was at its zenith.<ref name="dnb" />

===Return to England===
[[File:Bennett-Knoblock-Milestones-1912.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Scene from Act 2 of the 1912 play ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]'', by Bennett and [[Edward Knoblauch]]|alt= stage scene in 1885 costumes with three women and two men: a young woman earnestly addresses her stern father]]
In 1912, after an extended stay at the Hotel Californie in Cannes,<ref>Drabble, p. 188</ref> during which time he wrote ''The Regent'', a light-hearted sequel to ''The Card'', Bennett and his wife moved from France to England. Initially they lived in [[Putney]], but "determined to become an English country landowner",<ref>Donovan, p. 114</ref> he bought [[Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken|Comarques]], an early-18th-century country house at [[Thorpe-le-Soken]], Essex, and moved there in February 1913.<ref>Drabble, p. 192</ref> Among his early concerns, once back in England, was to succeed as a playwright. He had dabbled previously but his inexperience showed. ''[[The Times]]'' thought his 1911 comedy ''The Honeymoon'', staged in the [[West End theatre|West End]] with a starry cast,{{refn|The cast included [[Dion Boucicault Jr.|Dion Boucicault]], [[W. Graham Brown]], [[Dennis Eadie]], [[Basil Hallam]], [[Kate Serjeantson]] and [[Marie Tempest]].<ref name=hon/>|group=n}} had "one of the most amusing first acts we have ever seen", but fell flat in the other two acts.<ref name=hon>"Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 7 October 1911, p. 8</ref> In the same year Bennett met the playwright [[Edward Knoblauch]] (later Knoblock) and they collaborated on ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]'', the story of the generations of a family seen in 1860, 1885 and 1912. The combination of Bennett's narrative gift and Knoblauch's practical experience proved a success.<ref name=da>"Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291</ref> The play was strongly cast,{{refn|The cast included [[Lionel Atwill]], [[Gladys Cooper]], [[Dennis Eadie]], [[Mary Jerrold]], [[Owen Nares]] and [[Haidee Wright]].<ref>"Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 6 March 1912</ref>|group=n}} received highly favourable notices,<ref>"Bennett-Knoblauch Play a Big Success", ''The New York Times'', 6 March 1912, p. 4;  "Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 6 March 1912; "Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291; Milne, A. A. "At the Play", ''Punch'', 27 March 1912, p. 238; and "Plays of the Month", ''The English Review'', April 1912, pp. 155–157</ref> ran for more than 600 performances in London and over 200 in New York,<ref>Gaye, p. 1535; and [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/milestones-7497 "Milestones"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326123535/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/milestones-7497 |date=26 March 2020 }}, Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref> and made Bennett a great deal of money.<ref name=odnb/> His next play, ''[[The Great Adventure (play)|The Great Adventure]]'' (1913), a stage version of his novel ''Buried Alive'' (1908), was similarly successful.<ref name=Wearing327>Wearing, p. 327</ref>

Bennett's attitude to the [[First World War]] was that British politicians had been at fault in failing to prevent it, but that once it had become inevitable it was right that Britain should join its allies against the Germans.<ref>Pound, p. 248</ref> He concentrated his attention on journalism, aiming to inform and encourage the public in Britain and allied and neutral countries. He served on official and unofficial committees, and in 1915 he was invited to visit France to see conditions at the front and write about them for readers at home. The collected impressions appeared in a book called ''Over There'' (1915).<ref name=dnb/> He was still writing novels, however: ''These Twain'', the third in his Clayhanger trilogy, was published in 1916<ref>Drabble, p 210</ref> and in 1917 he completed a sequel, ''The Roll Call'', which ends with its hero, George Cannon, enlisting in the army. Wartime London was the setting for Bennett's ''The Pretty Lady'' (1918), about a high-class French ''[[Cocotte (prostitute)|cocotte]]'': although well reviewed, because of its subject-matter the novel provoked "a Hades of a row" and some booksellers refused to sell it.<ref>Donovan, p. 136</ref>

When [[Lord Beaverbrook]] became [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Minister of Information]] in February 1918 he appointed Bennett to take charge of propaganda in France.<ref name="dnb" /> Beaverbrook fell ill in October 1918 and made Bennett director of propaganda, in charge of the whole ministry for the last weeks of the war.<ref>"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 2 October 1918, p. 11; and Pound, pp. 276–277</ref> At the end of 1918 Bennett was offered, but declined, a [[Commander (order)#United Kingdom|knighthood]] in the new [[Order of the British Empire]] instituted by [[George V]].<ref name="p279">Pound, p. 279</ref> The offer was renewed some time later, and again Bennett refused it. One of his closest associates at the time suspected that he was privately hoping for the more prestigious [[Order of Merit]].<ref name="p279" />

As the war was ending, Bennett returned to his theatrical interests, although not primarily as a playwright. In November 1918 he became chairman, with [[Nigel Playfair]] as managing director, of the [[Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith]].<ref>"Mr Arnold Bennett's Theatre", ''The Times'', 15 November 1819, p. 3</ref> Among their productions were ''[[Abraham Lincoln (play)|Abraham Lincoln]]'' by [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater]], and ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', which, in Swinnerton's phrase, "caught different moods of the post-war spirit",<ref name=dnb/> and ran for 466 and 1,463 performances respectively.<ref>Gaye, p. 1528</ref>

===Last years===
[[File:Arnold Bennett and H.G. Wells (5026571804).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Exterior of block of luxury flats with brown plaques on either side of the entrance|[[Chiltern Court, Baker Street|Chiltern Court]] – Bennett's last home, with plaques commemorating him and [[H. G. Wells|H.{{space}}G.{{space}}Wells]]]]
[[File:Arnold Bennett, Burslem Cemetery.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Funerary stone monument consisting of a pedestal stack of square blocks, each narrower than the one below it, upon which rests a tall, narrow [[cuboid]] with inscriptions, above which is a square capitol topped with a carved urn|Memorial in [[Burslem#Burslem cemetery|Burslem Cemetery]]{{refn|The inscription gives the date of his death as 29 March 1931, although in fact he died at 8.50 p.m. on 27 March.<ref name=p367/>|group=n}}]]
In 1921 Bennett and his wife [[legally separated]]. They had been drifting apart for some years and Marguerite had taken up with Pierre Legros, a young French lecturer.<ref>Drabble, pp. 252 and 257</ref> Bennett sold Comarques and lived in London for the rest of his life, first in a flat near [[Bond Street]] in the [[West End of London|West End]], on which he had taken a lease during the war.<ref>Drabble, p. 266</ref> For much of the 1920s he was widely known to be the highest-paid literary journalist in England, contributing a weekly column to Beaverbrook's ''[[Evening Standard]]'' under the title 'Books and Persons'; according to [[Frank Swinnerton]], these articles were "extraordinarily successful and influential ... and made a number of new reputations".<ref>Swinnerton (1978), p. 54</ref>{{refn|The columns for ''The Evening Standard'' are collected in ''Arnold Bennett: The Evening Standard Years – "Books and Persons" 1926–1931'', published in 1974.<ref>Bennett (1974), title page</ref>|group=n}} By the end of his career, Bennett had contributed to more than 100 newspapers, magazines and other publications.<ref>Howarth, p. 2</ref> He continued to write novels and plays as assiduously as before the war.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=dnb/>

Swinnerton writes, "Endless social engagements; inexhaustible patronage of musicians, actors, poets, and painters; the maximum of benevolence to friends and strangers alike, marked the last ten years of his life".<ref name=dnb/> [[Hugh Walpole]],<ref>Hart-Davis, pp. 88, 89, 102–103, 149–150, 169 and 211</ref> [[James Agate]]<ref>Agate, p. 166</ref> and [[Osbert Sitwell]] were among those who testified to Bennett's generosity. Sitwell recalled a letter Bennett wrote in the 1920s:
{{blockindent|I find I am richer this year than last; so I enclose a cheque for 500 pounds for you to distribute among young writers and artists and musicians who may need the money. You will know, better than I do, who they are. But I must make one condition, that you do not reveal that the money has come from me, or tell anyone about it.<ref>''Quoted'' in Agate, p. 166</ref>{{refn|Sitwell recorded that Bennett's practice of anonymous philanthropy was continued by the latter's protégé [[Hugh Walpole]].<ref>Hart-Davis, pp. 325–326</ref>|group=n}}|}}
In 1922 Bennett met and fell in love with an actress, Dorothy Cheston (1891–1977). Together they set up home in [[Cadogan Square]], where they stayed until moving in 1930 to [[Chiltern Court, Baker Street]].<ref>Drabble, pp. 276 and 334</ref> As Marguerite would not agree to a divorce,{{refn|Drabble ascribes her obduracy to a combination of the vindictive and the mercenary – no divorce court would award a settlement as advantageous to her as the highly generous terms given to her by Bennett at their separation.<ref>Drabble, p. 310</ref>|group=n}} Bennett was unable to marry Dorothy, and in September 1928, having become pregnant, she changed her name by [[deed poll]] to Dorothy Cheston Bennett.<ref name=d308>Drabble, p. 308</ref>{{refn|Such recourse was familiar at the time, when unmarried couples were expected to make a token pretence of being married: in similar circumstances [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood's]] partner changed her name by deed poll to "Lady Jessie Wood",<ref>Jacobs, p. 324</ref> and as late as the 1950s [[Jane Grigson]] similarly took her undivorced partner's surname.<ref>Kennet, Wayland. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39832 "Grigson (née McIntire), (Heather Mabel) Jane (1928–1990), writer on cookery"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602142334/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39832 |date=2 June 2018 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 5 June 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Dorothy was never formally "Mrs Bennett", but after she and Marguerite were both present at the memorial service for Bennett, in [[St Clement Danes]] on 31 March 1931, ''The Times'' addressed the problem by referring to them as "Mrs Dorothy Bennett" and "Mrs Arnold Bennett" respectively.<ref>"Mr Arnold Bennett", ''The Times'', 1 April 1931, p. 17</ref>|group=n}} The following April she gave birth to the couple's only child, Virginia Mary (1929–2003).<ref name=d308/> She continued to appear as an actress, and produced and starred in a revival of ''Milestones'' which was well reviewed, but had only a moderate run.<ref name=d335>Drabble, p. 335</ref> Bennett had mixed feelings about her continuing stage career, but did not seek to stop it.<ref name=d335/>

During a holiday in France with Dorothy in January 1931, Bennett twice drank tap-water – not, at the time, a safe thing to do there.<ref>Drabble, p. 346; and Pound, p. 364</ref> On his return home he was taken ill; [[influenza]] was diagnosed at first, but the illness was [[typhoid fever]]; after several weeks of unsuccessful treatment he died in his flat at Chiltern Court on 27 March 1931, aged 63.<ref name=p367/>{{refn|In his last hours the local authority agreed that straw should be spread in the street outside Bennett's flat to dull the sound of traffic. This is believed to be the last time this traditional practice was carried out in London.<ref name=p367>Pound, p. 367</ref>|group=n}}

Bennett was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] and his ashes were interred in [[Burslem#Burslem cemetery|Burslem Cemetery]] in his mother's grave.<ref>Drabble, p. 353; and Pound, p. 367</ref> A memorial service was held on 31 March 1931 at [[St Clement Danes]], London, attended by leading figures from journalism, literature, music, politics and theatre, and, in Pound's words, many men and women who at the end of the service "walked out into a London that for them would never be the same again".<ref>Pound, p. 368</ref>

==Works==
{{See also|List of works by Arnold Bennett}}
From the outset, Bennett believed in the "democratisation of art which it is surely the duty of the minority to undertake".<ref>Bennett (1901), p. 5</ref> He admired some of the [[Literary modernism|modernist]] writers of his time, but strongly disapproved of their conscious appeal to a small élite and their disdain for the general reader. Bennett believed that literature should be inclusive, accessible to ordinary people.<ref name=kk>Koenigsberger, Kurt. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001/acref-9780195169218-e-0037 "Bennett, Arnold"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605081100/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001/acref-9780195169218-e-0037 |date=5 June 2020 }}, ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2020</ref>

From the start of his career, Bennett was aware of the appeal of regional fiction. [[Anthony Trollope]], [[George Eliot]] and [[Thomas Hardy]] had created and sustained their own locales, and Bennett did the same with his Five Towns, drawing on his experiences as a boy and young man.<ref>Howarth, p. 76</ref> As a [[Naturalism (literature)|realistic]] writer he followed the examples of the authors he admired – above all [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]], but also [[Balzac]], [[Flaubert]] and [[Maupassant]] among French writers, and [[Dostoevsky]], [[Turgenev]] and [[Tolstoy]] among Russians. In writing about the Five Towns, Bennett aimed to portray the experiences of ordinary people coping with the norms and constraints of the communities in which they lived.<ref>Howarth, pp. 13 and 76</ref> [[J. B. Priestley]] considered that the next influence on Bennett's fiction was his time in London in the 1890s, "engaged in journalism and ingenious pot-boiling of various kinds."<ref name=jpb>''Quoted'' in Howarth, pp. 11–12</ref>

===Novels and short stories===
[[File:Enoch Arnold Bennett, Vanity Fair, 1913-04-02.jpg|thumb|Bennett, caricatured by "Owl" in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1913|alt=caricature of sleek, plump and prosperous Bennett, smoking a cigar]]
Bennett is remembered chiefly for his novels and short stories. The best known are set in, or feature people from, the six towns of the Potteries of his youth. He presented the region as "the Five Towns", which correspond closely with their originals: the real-life [[Burslem]], [[Hanley]], [[Longton, Staffordshire|Longton]], [[Stoke-upon-Trent|Stoke]] and [[Tunstall, Staffordshire|Tunstall]] become Bennett's Bursley, Hanbridge, Longshaw, Knype and Turnhill.<ref>Drabble, p. 4</ref>{{refn|The omitted town is [[Fenton, Staffordshire|Fenton]], an omission that still rankles with some local people in the 21st century.<ref>Ault, Richard. [https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/some-people-believe-city-five-2492949 "Some people believe this city has five towns"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204113135/https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/some-people-believe-city-five-2492949 |date=4 February 2019 }}, ''Stoke on Trent Sentinel'', 4 February 2019</ref>|group=n}} These "Five Towns" make their first appearance in Bennett's fiction in ''[[Anna of the Five Towns]]'' (1902) and are the setting for further novels including ''Leonora'' (1903), ''Whom God Hath Joined'' (1906), ''The Old Wives' Tale'' (1908) and the [[Clayhanger]] trilogy – ''Clayhanger'' (1910), ''Hilda Lessways'' (1911) and ''These Twain'' (1916) – as well as for dozens of short stories. Bennett's fiction portrays the Five Towns with what ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' calls "an ironic but affectionate detachment, describing provincial life and culture in documentary detail, and creating many memorable characters".<ref name=ocel/> In later life Bennett said that the writer [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]] was "the father of all my Five Towns books" as it was reading Moore's 1885 novel ''A Mummer's Wife'', set in the Potteries, that "opened my eyes to the romantic nature of the district I had blindly inhabited for over twenty years".<ref>Hepburn (1970), p. 139</ref> Earlier, Bennett's view of his home town had been stimulated by [[H. G. Wells|H.G. Wells]]'s 1895 short story ''[[The Cone]]'', set in the Potteries: in 1897, at the start of their long friendship, he wrote to Wells that he was "very glad to find that the Potteries made such an impression on you. I lived there till I was 21, & have been away from it for 9 years, & only during the last few years have I begun to see its possibilities. ... [T]here is an aspect of these industrial districts which is really ''grandiose'', full of dark splendours, & which has been absolutely missed by all novelists up to date."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hepburn |first=James |title=Letters of Arnold Bennett, vol II: 1889-1915 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1968 |pages=90}}</ref>

It was not only locations on which Bennett drew for his fiction. Many of his characters are discernibly based on real people in his life. His Lincoln's Inn friend John Eland was a source for Mr Aked in Bennett's first novel, ''A Man from the North'' (1898);<ref>Drabble, p. 49</ref> ''A Great Man'' (1903) contains a character with echoes of his Parisienne friend Chichi;<ref>Drabble, p. 115</ref> Darius Clayhanger's early life is based on that of a family friend and Bennett himself is seen in Edwin in ''Clayhanger''.<ref>Drabble, pp. 53 and 174–175</ref> He has been criticised for making literary use in that novel of the distressing details of his father's decline into senility, but in Pound's view, in committing the details to paper Bennett was unburdening himself of painful memories.<ref>Pound, p. 121</ref>

''These Twain'' is Bennett's "last extended study of Five Towns life".<ref>Lucas, p. 153</ref> The novels he wrote in the 1920s are largely set in London and thereabouts: ''[[Riceyman Steps]]'' (1923), for instance, generally regarded as the best of Bennett's post-war novels,<ref>Drabble, p. 276</ref> was set in [[Clerkenwell]]: it was awarded the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize|James Tait Black]] novel prize for 1923, "the first prize for a book I ever had", Bennett noted in his journal on 18 October 1924.<ref>Bennett (1933), p. 63</ref> His ''Lord Raingo'' (1926), described by Dudley Barker as "one of the finest of political novels in the language",<ref>Barker, p. 224</ref> benefited from Bennett's own experience in the Ministry of Information and his subsequent friendship with Beaverbrook:<ref>Drabble, p. 300</ref> John Lucas states that "As a study of what goes on in the corridors of power [''Lord Raingo''] has few equals".<ref>Lucas, p. 305</ref> And Bennett's final – and longest – novel, ''[[Imperial Palace (novel)|Imperial Palace]]'' (1930), is set in a grand London hotel reminiscent of the [[Savoy Hotel|Savoy]], whose directors assisted him in his preliminary research.<ref>Pound, p. 336</ref>

Bennett usually gave his novels subtitles; the most frequent was "A fantasia on modern themes",{{refn|There were six "Fantasias": ''The Grand Babylon Hotel'' (1902); ''Teresa of Watling Street'' (1904); ''Hugo'' (1906); ''The Ghost'' (1907); ''[[The City of Pleasure (Bennett novel)|The City of Pleasure]]'' (1907) and ''The Vanguard'' (1927).<ref name=ww>Watson and Willison, columns 429–431</ref>|group=n}} individual books were called "A frolic" or "A melodrama", but he was sparing with the label "A novel" which he used for only a few of his books – for instance ''Anna of the Five Towns'', ''Leonora'', ''Sacred and Profane Love'', ''The Old Wives' Tale'', ''The Pretty Lady'' (1918) and ''Riceyman Steps''.<ref name="ww" /> Literary critics have followed Bennett in dividing his novels into groups. The literary scholar Kurt Koenigsberger proposes three categories. In the first are the long narratives – "freestanding, monumental artefacts" – ''Anna of the Five Towns'', ''The Old Wives' Tale'', ''Clayhanger'' and ''Riceyman Steps'', which "have been held in high critical regard since their publication".<ref name="kk" /> Koenigsberger writes that the "Fantasias" such as ''The Grand Babylon Hotel'' (1902), ''Teresa of Watling Street'' (1904) and ''[[The City of Pleasure (Bennett novel)|The City of Pleasure]]'' (1907), have "mostly passed from public attention along with the 'modern' conditions they exploit".<ref name="kk" /> His third group includes "Idyllic Diversions" or "Stories of Adventure", including ''Helen with the High Hand'' (1910), ''The Card'' (1911), and ''The Regent'' (1913), which "have sustained some enduring critical and popular interest, not least for their amusing treatment of cosmopolitanism and provinciality".<ref name="kk" />

Bennett published 96 short stories in seven volumes between 1905 and 1931. His ambivalence about his native town is vividly seen in "The Death of Simon Fuge" in the collection ''The Grim Smile of the Five Towns'' (1907), judged by Lucas the finest of all the stories.<ref name=odnb/> His chosen locations ranged widely, including Paris and Venice as well as London and the Five Towns.<ref name=ww/> As with his novels, he would sometimes give a story a label, calling "The Matador of the Five Towns" (1912) "a tragedy" and "Jock-at-a-Venture" from the same collection "a frolic".<ref name=ww/> The short stories, particularly those in ''Tales of the Five Towns'' (1905), ''The Grim Smile of the Five Towns'' (1907), and ''The Matador of the Five Towns'' contain some of the most striking examples of Bennett's concern for realism, with an unflinching narrative focus on what Lucas calls "the drab, the squalid, and the mundane".<ref name=odnb/> In 2010 and 2011 two further volumes of Bennett's hitherto uncollected short stories were published: they range from his earliest work written in the 1890s, some under the pseudonym Sarah Volatile, to US magazine commissions from the late 1920s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=Arnold|title=Arnold Bennett's Uncollected Short Stories|editor= John Shapcott|location=Leek|publisher=Churnet Valley Books|year=2010|isbn=978-1-90-454674-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=Arnold|title=Lord Dover and Other Lost Stories|editor=John Shapcott|publisher=Churnet Valley Books|year=2011|isbn=978-1-90-454681-8|location=Leek}}</ref>

===Stage and screen===
In 1931 the critic Graham Sutton, looking back at Bennett's career in the theatre, contrasted his achievements as a playwright with those as a novelist, suggesting that Bennett was a complete novelist but a not-entirely-complete dramatist. His plays were clearly those of a novelist: "He tends to lengthy speeches. Sometimes he overwrites a part as though distrusting the actor. He is more interested in what his people are than in what they visibly do. He 'thinks nowt' of mere slickness of plot."<ref name=sutton>Sutton, Graham. "The Plays of Arnold Bennett", ''The Bookman'', December 1931, p. 165</ref>

[[File:Arnold Bennett The Great Adventure 1913.png|thumb|upright=1.5|left|alt=Scene from a play, with young woman standing in a smart drawing room addressing three seated and two standing men|''The Great Adventure'', 1913]]
Bennett's lack of a theatrical grounding showed in the uneven construction of some of his plays, such as his 1911 comedy ''The Honeymoon'', which played for 125 performances from October 1911.<ref>Wearing, p. 175</ref> The highly successful ''Milestones'' was seen as impeccably constructed but the credit for that was given to his craftsmanlike collaborator, Edward Knoblauch (Bennett being credited with the inventive flair of the piece).<ref name=da/> By far his most successful solo effort in the theatre was ''The Great Adventure'', based on his 1908 novel ''[[Buried Alive (novel)|Buried Alive]]'', which ran in the West End for 674 performances, from March 1913 to November 1914.<ref name=Wearing327/> Sutton praised its "new strain of impish and sardonic fantasy" and rated it a much finer play than ''Milestones''.<ref name=sutton/>

After the First World War, Bennett wrote two plays on metaphysical questions, ''Sacred and Profane Love'' (1919, adapted from his novel) and ''Body and Soul'' (1922), which made little impression. ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|The Saturday Review]]'' praised the "shrewd wit" of the former, but thought it "false in its essentials&nbsp;... superficial in its accidentals".<ref>"Mr Arnold Bennett at the Aldwych", ''The Saturday Review'', 22 November 1919, p. 483</ref> Of the latter, the critic Horace Shipp wondered "how the author of ''Clayhanger'' and ''The Old Wives' Tale'' could write such third-rate stuff".<ref>Shipp, Horace. "Body and Soul: A Study in Theatre Problems", ''The English Review'', October 1922, p. 340</ref> Bennett had more success in a final collaboration with [[Edward Knoblock]] (as Knoblauch had become during the war) with ''Mr Prohack'' (1927), a comedy based on his 1922 novel; one critic wrote "I could have enjoyed the play had it run to double its length", but even so he judged the middle act weaker than the outer two.<ref>Walbrook, H. M. "Plays of the Month", ''The Play Pictorial'', November 1927, p. 10</ref> Sutton concludes that Bennett's ''forte'' was character, but that the competence of his technique was variable.<ref name=sutton/> The plays are seldom revived, although some have been adapted for television.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=1&media=tv&order=asc&q=Arnold+Bennett "Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312093028/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=1&media=tv&order=asc&q=Arnold+Bennett |date=12 March 2021 }} BBC Genome. Retrieved 3 June 2020</ref><ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba124e267 "Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603115559/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba124e267 |date=3 June 2020 }}, British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 June 2020</ref>

Bennett wrote two opera [[libretti]] for the composer [[Eugene Aynsley Goossens|Eugene Goossens]]: ''Judith'' (one act, 1929) and ''Don Juan'' (four acts, produced in 1937 after the writer's death).<ref>Banfield, Stephen. [[doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O003511|"Goossens, Sir (Aynsley) Eugene"]], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 1992. Retrieved 10 March 2021.</ref> There were comments that Goossens's music lacked tunes and Bennett's libretti were too wordy and literary.<ref>"Opera at Covent Garden", ''The Musical Times'', July 1937, p. 646; and Page, Philip. "Don Juan de Mañara", ''The Sphere'', 3 July 1937</ref> The critic [[Ernest Newman]] defended both works, finding Bennett's libretto for Judith "a drama told simply and straightforwardly"<ref>Rosen, p. 122</ref> and ''Don Juan'' "the best thing that English opera has so far produced&nbsp;... the most dramatic and stageworthy",<ref>''Quoted'' in ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'',  15 July 1937, p. 8</ref> but though politely received, both operas vanished from the repertory after a few performances.<ref>Rosen, p. 202</ref>

Bennett took a keen interest in the cinema, and in 1920 wrote ''The Wedding Dress'', a scenario for a silent movie, at the request of Jesse Lasky of the [[Famous Players–Lasky|Famous Players]] film company.<ref>Drabble, pp. 266 and 268–269</ref> It was never made, though Bennett wrote a full-length treatment, assumed to be lost until his daughter Virginia found it in a drawer in her Paris home in 1983; subsequently the script was sold to the [[Potteries Museum and Art Gallery]] and was finally published in 2013.<ref>Shapcott, pp. 263–264</ref> In 1928 Bennett wrote the  scenario for the silent film ''[[Piccadilly (film)|Piccadilly]]'', directed by [[E. A. Dupont]] and starring [[Anna May Wong]], described by the [[British Film Institute]] as "one of  the true greats of British silent films".<ref>{{Cite web|title=BFI Screenonline: Piccadilly (1929)|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/486639/|access-date=22 February 2021|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|archive-date=5 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205074622/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/486639/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1929, the year the film came out, Bennett was in discussion with a young [[Alfred Hitchcock]] to script a silent film, ''Punch and Judy'', which foundered on artistic disagreements and  Bennett's refusal to see the film as a "talkie" rather than silent.<ref>Drabble, p.329</ref> His original scenario, acquired by [[Pennsylvania State University]], was published in the UK in 2012.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=Arnold|title=Punch and Judy|editor=John Shapcott|others=   Margaret Drabble (foreword)|publisher=Churnet Valley Books|year=2012|isbn=978-1-90-454683-2|location=Leek}}</ref>

=== Journalism and self-help books ===
Bennett published more than two dozen non-fiction books, among which eight could be classified as "self-help": the most enduring is ''[[How to Live on 24 Hours a Day]]'' (1908), which is still in print and has been translated into several languages. Other "self-help" volumes include ''How to Become an Author'' (1903), ''The Reasonable Life'' (1907), ''[[Literary Taste: How to Form It]]'' (1909), ''The Human Machine'' (1908), ''Mental Efficiency'' (1911), ''The Plain Man and his Wife'' (1913), ''Self and Self-Management'' (1918) and ''How to Make the Best of Life'' (1923). They were, says Swinnerton, "written for small fees and with a real desire to assist the ignorant".<ref>Swinnerton (1978), p.104</ref> According to the Harvard academic Beth Blum, these books "advance less scientific versions of the argument for mental discipline espoused by William James".<ref>Blum, p. 133</ref>

In his biography of Bennett, Patrick Donovan argues that in the US "the huge appeal to the ordinary readers" of his self-help books "made his name stand out vividly from other English writers across the massive, fragmented American market."<ref name=Donovan>Donovan, p. 99</ref> As Bennett put it to his London-based agent [[J. B. Pinker]], these "pocket philosophies are just the sort of book for the American public". However, ''How to Live on 24 Hours'' was aimed initially at "the legions of clerks and typists and other meanly paid workers caught up in the explosion of British office jobs around the turn of the century … they offered a strong message of hope from somebody who so well understood their lives".<ref name=Donovan/>

Bennett never lost his journalistic instincts, and throughout his life sought and responded to newspaper and magazine commissions with varying degrees of enthusiasm: "from the start of the 1890s right up to the week of his death there would never be a period when he was not churning out copy for newspapers and magazines".<ref>Donovan, p. 46</ref> In a journal entry at the end of 1908, for instance, he noted that he had written "over sixty newspaper articles" that year;<ref>Swinnerton (1954), p. 252</ref> in 1910 the figure was "probably about 80 other articles". While living in Paris he was a regular contributor to ''T. P.'s Weekly''; later he reviewed for ''[[The New Age]]'' under the pseudonym Jacob Tonson and was associated with the ''[[New Statesman]]'' as not only a writer but also a director.<ref>Barker, p. 185</ref>

===Journals===
Inspired by the ''[[Journal des Goncourt]]'', Bennett kept a journal throughout his adult life. Swinnerton says that it runs to a million words; it has not been published in full.<ref>Swinnerton (1954), p. 15</ref> Edited extracts were issued in three volumes, in 1932 and 1933.<ref name=ww/> According to Hugh Walpole, the editor, [[Newman Flower]], "was so appalled by much of what he found in the journals that he published only brief extracts, and those the safest".<ref name=lhd>Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, p. 176</ref> Whatever Flower censored, the extracts he selected were not always "the safest": he let some defamatory remarks through, and in 1935 he, the publishers and printers had to pay an undisclosed sum to the plaintiff in one libel suit and £2,500 in another.<ref>"Journals of Arnold Bennett: Libel Action Settled", ''The Times'', 18 April 1935, p. 4; and "High Court of Justice", ''The Times'', 23 November 1935, p. 4</ref>

==Critical reputation==

===Novels and short stories===
[[File:Arnold Bennett 1928.jpg|thumb|upright|Bennett in 1928|alt=man in late middle age, dressed in a dark suit, full head of greying hair, moustached, sitting at a desk]]
The literary [[Literary modernism|modernists]] of his day deplored Bennett's books, and those of his well-known contemporaries [[H. G. Wells]] and [[John Galsworthy]].<ref name=h5/><ref>Steele, p. 21</ref> Of the three, Bennett drew the most opprobrium from modernists such as [[Virginia Woolf]], [[Ezra Pound]] and [[Wyndham Lewis]] who regarded him as representative of an outmoded and rival literary culture.<ref name=h5>Howarth, p. 5; and Drabble p. 289</ref> There was a strong element of class-consciousness and [[snobbery]] in the modernists' attitude:<ref>Carey, p. 162</ref> Woolf accused Bennett of having "a shopkeeper's view of literature" and in her essay "[[Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown]]" accused Bennett, Galsworthy and Wells of ushering in an "age when character disappeared or was mysteriously engulfed".<ref>Bishop, p. 137</ref>

In a 1963 study of Bennett, James Hepburn summed up and dissented from the prevailing views of the novels, listing three related evaluative positions taken individually or together by almost all Bennett's critics: that his Five Towns novels are generally superior to his other work, that he and his art declined after ''The Old Wives' Tale'' or ''Clayhanger'', and that there is a sharp and clear distinction between the good and bad novels.<ref>Hepburn (1963), p. 182</ref> Hepburn countered that one of the novels most frequently praised by literary critics is ''Riceyman Steps'' (1923) set in Clerkenwell, London, and dealing with material imagined rather than observed by the author.<ref>Hepburn (1963), p. 183</ref>{{refn|''Riceyman Steps'' won the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction in 1923: winners in other years have included [[D. H. Lawrence]], [[E. M. Forster]], [[Radclyffe Hall]], [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Graham Greene]], [[Evelyn Waugh]], [[Anthony Powell]], [[Iris Murdoch]], [[John le Carré]], [[Zadie Smith]] and [[A. S. Byatt]].<ref>[https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black/winners/fiction "Fiction winners"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135357/https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black/winners/fiction |date=4 November 2020 }}, The James Tate Black Prizes, University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 6 June 2020</ref>|group=n}} On the third point he commented that although received wisdom was that ''The Old Wives' Tale'' and ''Clayhanger'' are good and ''Sacred and Profane Love'' and ''Lillian'' are bad, there was little consensus about which other Bennett novels were good, bad or indifferent.<ref>Hepburn (1963), pp. 189–190</ref> He instanced ''The Pretty Lady'' (1918), on which critical opinion ranged from "cheap and sensational"&nbsp;... "sentimental melodrama" to "a great novel".<ref>Hepburn (1963), pp. 132–133</ref> Lucas (2004) considers it "a much underrated study of England during the war years, especially in its sensitive feeling for the destructive frenzy that underlay much apparently good-hearted patriotism".<ref name=odnb/>

In 1974 [[Margaret Drabble]] published ''Arnold Bennett'', a literary biography. In the foreword she demurred at the critical dismissal of Bennett:
{{blockindent|I'd been brought up to believe that even his best books weren't very good – [[F. R. Leavis|Leavis]] dismisses him in a sentence or two, and not many people seemed to take him as seriously as I did. The best books I think are very fine indeed, on the highest level, deeply moving, original, and dealing with material that I had never before encountered in fiction, but only in life.<ref>Drabble, p. xi</ref>|}}

Writing in the 1990s the literary critic [[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]] called for a reappraisal of Bennett in his book ''The Intellectuals and the Masses'' (1992):
{{blockindent|His writings represent a systematic dismemberment of the intellectuals' case against the masses. He has never been popular with intellectuals as a result. Despite Margaret Drabble's forceful advocacy, his novels are still undervalued by literary academics, syllabus-devisers and other official censors.<ref>Carey, p. 152</ref>|}}
In 2006 Koenigsberger commented that one reason why Bennett's novels had been sidelined, apart from "the exponents of modernism who recoiled from his democratising aesthetic programme", was his attitude to gender. His books include the pronouncements "the average man has more intellectual power than the average woman" and "women as a sex love to be dominated"; Koenigsberger nevertheless praises Bennett's "sensitive and oft-praised portrayals of female figures in his fiction".<ref name=kk/>

Lucas concludes his study with the comment that Bennett's realism may be limited by his cautious assumption that things are as they are and will not change. Nevertheless, in Lucas's view, successive generations of reader have admired Bennett's best work, and future generations are certain to do so.<ref name=odnb/>

===Crime fiction===
Bennett dabbled in crime fiction, in ''The Grand Babylon Hotel'' and ''The Loot of Cities'' (1904). In ''Queen's Quorum'' (1951), a survey of crime fiction, [[Ellery Queen]] listed the latter among the 100 most important works in the genre. This collection of stories recounts the adventures of a millionaire who commits crimes to achieve his idealistic ends. Although it was "one of his least known works", it was nevertheless "of unusual interest, both as an example of Arnold Bennett's early work and as an early example of dilettante detectivism".<ref>Queen, p. 50</ref>

==Legacy==

===Arnold Bennett Society===
[[File:Statue of Arnold Bennett outside the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, Stoke-On-Trent.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Statue of neatly-dressed, seated man holding an open book and gesturing, as if discussing it with someone|Statue of Bennett outside the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent]]
The society was founded in 1954 "to promote the study and appreciation of the life, works and times not only of Arnold Bennett himself but also of other provincial writers, with particular relationship to North Staffordshire." In 2021 its president was Denis Eldin, Bennett's grandson; among the vice presidents was Margaret Drabble.<ref>[https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/meet-the-team/ "Meet the Team"], Arnold Bennett Society. Retrieved 25 June 2021</ref>

In 2017 the society instituted an annual Arnold Bennett Prize as part of the author's 150th-anniversary celebrations, to be awarded to an author who was born, lives or works in North Staffordshire and has published a book in the relevant year or to the author of a book which features the region. In 2017 [[John Lancaster (writer)|John Lancaster]] won the award for his poetry collection ''Potters: A Division of Labour''. Subsequent winners have been Jan Edwards for her novel ''Winter Downs'' (2018), [[Charlotte Higgins]] for ''Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths'' (2019) and Lisa Blower for her story collection ''It's Gone Dark Over Bill's Mother's'' (2020).<ref>[https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/category/events/arnold-bennett-prize/ "Arnold Bennett Prize"], Arnold Bennett Society. Retrieved 25 June 2021</ref> The prize was not awarded in 2021 because of the Covid-19 situation, but in 2022 it was won by John Pye, a former detective inspector turned crime writer, for his novel ''Where the Silent Screams Are Loudest.''<ref>[https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/2248/and-the-winner-is-john-pye/ "And the winner is: John Pye"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203020841/https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/2248/and-the-winner-is-john-pye/ |date=3 December 2022 }}, Arnold Bennett Society. Retrieved 24 July 2022</ref> The prize in 2023 went to Philip Nanney Williams for his book ''Adams: Britain's Oldest Potting Dynasty''.<ref name=":0" /> Following this, it was decided to make the prize biennial; in 2025 it was awarded to [[Jonathan Taylor (author)|Jonathan Taylor]] for his ''Scablands and Other Stories''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arnold Bennett Society Book Prize 2025 |url=https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/ |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=Arnold Bennett Society}}</ref>

===Plaques and statuary===
Bennett has been commemorated by several plaques. Hugh Walpole unveiled one at Comarques in 1931,<ref>"News in Brief", ''The Times'', 8 July 1931, p. 11</ref> and in the same year another was placed at Bennett's birthplace in Hanley.<ref>"Arnold Bennett", ''The Times'', 11 May 1932, p. 10</ref> A plaque to and bust of Bennett were unveiled in Burslem in 1962,<ref>"Arnold Bennett Plaque for Burslem", ''The Times'', 28 May 1962, p. 14</ref> and there are [[blue plaques]] commemorating him at the house in Cadogan Square where he lived from 1923 to 1930 and on the house in [[Cobridge]] where he lived in his youth.<ref>[https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/arnold-bennett/ "Bennett, Arnold"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703110829/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/arnold-bennett/ |date=3 July 2019 }}, Blue Plaques, English Heritage. Retrieved 6 June 2020; and [https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/property/six-bed-property-once-home-3185755 " Six bed property – once the home of Stoke-on-Trent novelist Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130173230/https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/property/six-bed-property-once-home-3185755 |date=30 November 2019 }}, ''Stoke Sentinel'', 18 August 2019</ref> The southern Baker Street entrance of Chiltern Court has a plaque to Bennett on the left and another to H. G. Wells on the right.<ref>[https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/arnold-bennett-nw1 "Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921200741/http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/arnold-bennett-nw1 |date=21 September 2015 }} and [https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/h-g-wells-baker-street "H. G. Wells"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420210155/http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/h-g-wells-baker-street |date=20 April 2016 }}, London Remembers. Retrieved 6 June 2020</ref> A blue plaque has been placed on the wall of Bennett's home in Fontainebleau.<ref name=ts/>

There is a two-metre-high bronze statue of Bennett<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/arnold-bennett-18671931-303243 |access-date=19 January 2023 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}</ref> outside [[The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery]] in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, unveiled on 27 May 2017 during the events marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.<ref>[https://horticon.co.uk/news/2017/6/21/arnold-bennett-statue-unveiled "Arnold Bennett statue unveiled"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007185759/http://horticon.co.uk/news/2017/6/21/arnold-bennett-statue-unveiled |date=7 October 2019 }}, Horticon News, 29 May 2017</ref>

===Archives===
There are substantial archives of Bennett's papers and artworks, including drafts, diaries, letters, photographs, and watercolours, at [[The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery]] in Stoke-on-Trent<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arnold Bennett Collection |url=https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/collections/local-history/arnold-bennett-collection/ |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=14 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614103327/https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/collections/local-history/arnold-bennett-collection/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and at [[Keele University]]. Other Bennett papers are held by [[University College London]], the [[British Library]], Staffordshire University's Special Collections<ref>{{Cite web |title= Library: Special Collections, Staffordshire University: Arnold Bennett Collection|url=https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/c.php?g=683072&p=4874816}}</ref> and, in the US, [[University of Texas at Austin|Texas]] and [[Yale]] universities and the Berg Collection in the [[New York Public Library]].<ref>[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/c2d032c2-79c7-3a81-8a51-5d941bf2562f "Arnold Bennett Papers"], JISC Archives Hub. Retrieved 18 April 2022; [https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/688 "Arnold Bennett collection"], Yale University. Retrieved 18 April 2022; [https://archives.nypl.org/brg/19115 "Arnold Bennett collection of papers"], New York Public Library. Retrieved 18 April 2022</ref>
<!--INTERESTING BUT NEEDS CITING PROPERLY - SEE WP:CITEVAR
=== Art ===
Bennett was a keen amateur artist. The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery holds a collection of his watercolours and drawings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Catherine |title=An Arnold Bennett Companion |publisher=Churnet Valley Books |year=2015 |isbn=9780992887933 |pages=83 |language=English}}</ref> An exhibition of his paintings, as well as personal objects and photographs, entitled "Arnold Bennett in Life and Art", was held at the same gallery from 18 February to 2 July 2017, as part of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arnold Bennett in Life and Art |url=https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/past-exhibitions/arnold-bennett-in-life-and-art/}}</ref>-->

===Omelette===
Bennett shares with the composer [[Tournedos Rossini|Gioachino Rossini]], the singer [[Nellie Melba#Honours, memorials and legacy|Nellie Melba]] and some other celebrities the distinction of having a well-known dish named in his honour.<ref>Ayto, John. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1297 "tournedos"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604204728/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1297 |date=4 June 2020 }} (tournedos Rossin); [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-777 "Melba"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604191950/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-777 |date=4 June 2020 }} (peach Melba); and [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1424 "Arnold Bennett"], ''The Diner's Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2020 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603204640/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1424 |date=3 June 2020 }}</ref> An [[omelette]] Arnold Bennett is one that incorporates [[smoked fish|smoked]] [[haddock]], hard cheese (typically [[Cheddar cheese|Cheddar]]), and cream.<ref name=ayto/> It was created at the [[Savoy Hotel#Restaurants|Savoy Grill]] in London for Bennett, who was an ''habitué'',<ref name=ayto>Ayto, John. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1424 "Arnold Bennett"], ''The Diner's Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2020 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603204640/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199640249.001.0001/acref-9780199640249-e-1424 |date=3 June 2020 }}</ref> by the chef [[Jean Baptiste Virlogeux]].<ref>Rhodes, Gary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DRURAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT162 "Omelette Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603210338/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DRURAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&q=Roho%20Imperial%20Palace |date=3 June 2020 }}, ''New British Classics''. Retrieved 3 June 2020</ref> It remains a British classic; cooks from [[Marcus Wareing]] to [[Delia Smith]] and [[Gordon Ramsay]] have published their recipes for it,<ref>[https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/omelette-arnold-bennett/ "Marcus Wareing's omelette Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603210137/https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/omelette-arnold-bennett/ |date=3 June 2020 }}. ''Delicious''; [https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/omelette-recipes/easy-omelette-arnold-bennett "Easy Omelette Arnold Bennett"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109133116/https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/omelette-recipes/easy-omelette-arnold-bennett |date=9 November 2019 }}, Delia Online; and [https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/news-and-press/savoy-grill-arnold-bennett-omelette-recipe/ "Savoy Grill Arnold Bennett Omelette Recipe"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604031910/https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/news-and-press/savoy-grill-arnold-bennett-omelette-recipe/ |date=4 June 2020 }}, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants. All retrieved 3 June 2020</ref> and a variant remains on the menu at the Savoy Grill.{{refn|The traditional omelette was served at the Savoy until 2021.<ref>[https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/savoy-grill/menus/all-menus/ "Savoy Grill"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312093034/https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/savoy-grill/menus/ |date=12 March 2021 }}, Retrieved 3 June 2020</ref> In 2022 the omelette was replaced with a [[soufflé]] Arnold Bennett, with the same essential ingredients.<ref>[https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/savoy-grill/menus/#A%20La%20Carte "Savoy Grill Menus"] Savoy Hotel. Retrieved 30 March 2022</ref>|group=n}}

==Notes, references and sources==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last = Agate | first = James | author-link = James Agate | title = Ego 5: Again More of the Autobiography of James Agate | year = 1943 | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.525216/page/n175/mode/2up | orig-year = 1942 | location = London | publisher = Harrap | oclc = 16572017 | ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Allen |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Allen |title=Arnold Bennett |publisher=Home & Van Thal |year=1949 |location=London }} (The English Novelists series)
* {{Cite book |last=Barker |first=Dudley |title=Writer by Trade: A Portrait of Arnold Bennett |publisher=Atheneum |year=1966 |location=New York |oclc=881792531 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bennett | first = Arnold | title = Fame and Fiction: An Enquiry into Certain Popularities | url = https://archive.org/details/famefictionenqui00benn/page/4/mode/2up | year = 1901 | location = New York | publisher = Dutton | oclc = 1045233933  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bennett | first = Arnold | title = The Journals of Arnold Bennett: Volume III, 1921–1928| editor = Newman Flower |editor-link=Newman Flower | year = 1933 | location = London | publisher = Cassels | oclc = 940296443 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bennett | first = Arnold | editor = Frank Swinnerton | editor-link = Frank Swinnerton | title = The Journals of Arnold Bennett | year = 1954 | location = London | publisher = Penguin | oclc = 476462467  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bennett | first = Arnold | title = Letters of Arnold Bennett: Volume II, 1889–1915 | editor = James Hepburn | year = 1968 | location = London | publisher = Oxford University Press | oclc = 796047600  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Bennett | first= Arnold| title=Arnold Bennett: The Evening Standard Years – "Books and Persons" 1926–1931 | year=1974 | location= London | editor=Andrew Mylett|publisher= Chatto & Windus  | isbn=978-0-70-111851-8  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bishop | first = Edward | title = A Virginia Woolf Chronology | url = https://archive.org/details/virginiawoolfchr00bish | year = 1989 | location = London | publisher = Macmillan | isbn = 978-1-349-07883-7|url-access=registration  | ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Blum |first=Beth |title=The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2020 |isbn= 978-0-23-119492-1 |location=New York  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Carey | first = John | author-link = John Carey (critic) | title = The Intellectuals and The Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1939 | year = 1992 | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | oclc = 600877390 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Corréard | first = Marie-Hélène | author2 = Valerie Grundy | author3 = Jean-Benoit Ormal-Grenon | author4 = Nicholas Rollin | title = The Oxford-Hachette French dictionary | edition = fourth | year = 2007 | location = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-861422-7 | ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Donovan |first=Patrick |title=Arnold Bennett: Lost Icon |publisher=Unicorn  |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-914414-47-3 |location=Lewes  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Drabble | first = Margaret | author-link = Margaret Drabble |url-access=registration| url = https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennettbi00drab | title = Arnold Bennett | year = 1974 | location = London | publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson | isbn = 978-0-297-76733-6  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Gaye | editor-first = Freda | year = 1967 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | edition = fourteenth | location = London | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc = 5997224  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Hart-Davis | first = Rupert | author-link = Rupert Hart-Davis | year = 1997 | orig-year = 1952 | title = Hugh Walpole | location = Stroud | publisher = Sutton | isbn = 978-0-7509-1491-8 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Hepburn | first=James | title=The Art of Arnold Bennett | year=1963 | url=https://archive.org/details/artofarnoldbenne0000hepb/page/142/mode/2up | location=Bloomington | publisher=Indiana University Press | oclc=1147717927 | ref=none }}
*{{Cite book |last=Hepburn |first=James |title=Letters of Arnold Bennett |volume=III |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1970 |isbn=0192121855 |location=London and New York | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Hepburn | first = James | title = Arnold Bennett | year = 2013 | location = London | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 978-1-136-20948-2  | ref=none}}
* {{cite thesis | last = Howarth | first = Barry | title = The Craft of Arnold Bennett | year = 2016 | location = Liverpool | url = http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3001694/1/200567706_Jan2016.pdf | publisher = University of Liverpool | oclc = 1063646459 | access-date = 6 June 2020 | archive-date = 12 March 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210312092945/https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3001694/1/200567706_Jan2016.pdf | url-status = live |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Jacobs | first = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Jacobs | title = Henry J. Wood: Maker of the Proms | year = 1994 | location = London|publisher=Methuen | isbn = 978-0-413-68390-8 | ref=none}}
*{{cite book | last= Lucas | first= John | title = Arnold Bennett: A Study of his Fiction| date= 1974 | location = London | publisher= Methuen|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennettstu00luca/mode/2up | isbn = 978-0-41-675770-5|ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Lyttelton | first = George | author-link = George William Lyttelton | author2 = Rupert Hart-Davis | editor = Rupert Hart-Davis | title = The Lyttelton–Hart-Davis Letters, Volume 2 | year = 1979 | location = London | publisher = John Murray | isbn = 978-0-7195-3673-1  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Maugham | first = Somerset | author-link = Somerset Maugham | title = The Vagrant Moment | year = 1955 | location = London and New York | publisher = Heinemann and Putnam | oclc = 123753714  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Pound | first = Reginald | author-link = Reginald Pound | title = Arnold Bennett: A Biography | url = https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennettbio0000poun | year = 1953 | location = New York | publisher = Harcourt, Brace | oclc = 950552766  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Queen | first = Ellery | author-link = Ellery Queen | title = Queen's Quorum. A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story | year = 1951 | location = Boston | publisher = Little, Brown | oclc = 504140704  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Rosen | first= Carole | title= The Goossens: A Musical Century | year= 1994 | location= Boston | publisher= Northeastern University Press | isbn= 978-1-55-553210-9  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Steele | first=Elizabeth | year=1972 | title=Hugh Walpole | url=https://archive.org/details/hughwalpole00stee | location=London | publisher=Twayne | isbn=978-0-8057-1560-6  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Shapcott | first= John |chapter= Buried Alive: Bennett in the Archives| title= An Arnold Bennett Companion: A Twenty-first Century Perspective | year= 2015| location=Leek |editor=John Shapcott| publisher= Churnet Valley Books | isbn=978-0-99-288793-3  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Swinnerton | first = Frank | title = Arnold Bennett | year = 1950 | url = https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennett0000swin/page/12/mode/2up | location = London and New York | publisher = Longman | oclc = 1148037250  | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Swinnerton | first = Frank | title = The Journals of Arnold Bennett | year = 1954 | chapter = Introduction | location = London | publisher = Penguin | oclc = 476462467  | ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Swinnerton |first=Frank |title=Arnold Bennett: A Last Word |year=1978  |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-38-514545-9 }}
* {{cite book | last = Watson | first = George | author2 = Ian R. Willison | title = The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volume 4 | year = 1972 | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-08535-9 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Wearing | first = J. P. | author-link = J. P. Wearing | title = The London Stage, 1910–1916: A Calendar of Plays and Players | year = 1982 | location = Metuchen | publisher = Scarecrow | isbn = 978-0-8108-1596-4 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Young | first = Kenneth | title = Arnold Bennett | year = 1975 | location = Harlow | publisher = Longman | oclc = 1028222902 |ref=none}}
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* Shapcott, John  (2017). ''Arnold Bennett Companion'', Vol. II. Leek, Staffs: Churnet Valley Books. {{ISBN|978-1-904546-91-7}}.
* Squillace, Robert (1997). ''Modernism, Modernity and Arnold Bennett''. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8387-5364-4}}.

==External links==

{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|Arnold Bennett}}
{{Wikiquote}}

* [https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/ Arnold Bennett Society] Website

'''Works'''
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/arnold-bennett}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Bennett, Arnold|name=Arnold Bennett|author=yes}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=859 | name=Arnold Bennett}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Arnold Bennett}}
* {{Librivox author |id=263}}

{{Arnold Bennett}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Arnold}}
[[Category:Arnold Bennett| ]]
[[Category:1867 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English short story writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English diarists]]
[[Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English screenwriters]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:British propagandists]]
[[Category:Burials in Staffordshire]]
[[Category:Deaths from typhoid fever in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:English crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:English expatriates in France]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English opera librettists]]
[[Category:English self-help writers]]
[[Category:Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in England]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:People from Hanley, Staffordshire]]
[[Category:Victorian novelists]]
[[Category:Writers from Staffordshire]]
[[Category:English male short story writers]]