Arnold Bennett Part II

Bennett was born in the Potteries town of Hanley, now part of Stoke on Trent in 1867. His father had tried varous jobs and trained as a solicitor. He married and was doing well financially. Arnold had a good education. Like Edwin Clayhanger, he wanted to do something different to what his father wanted for him. Bennett senior wanted him to become a lawyer, like him. Arnold loved literature and especially French literature and he wanted to write. He did several jobs, when he left school, but at the age of 21, he trained as a shorthand writer and left the Potteries, for London. He got work with his shorthand and began to write in his spare time. He made friends with a young man who also loved French literature and began to plan for a career as a novelist. In his mid 20's he got a job as a magazine editor and wrote a couple of novels. In 1903, after his father's death, he decided to move to France. He loved French culture and felt it would help with his writing. He was a very shy man especially with women.. but in France he met a woman, Marguerite Soulier. He fell in love with her and they married when he was 40. He spent several years in France, before World War One. He and Marguerite had no children. He was a prolific and very successful writer. Clayhanger did especially well... and he was comfortably off. However critics have felt that many of his novels were pot boilers, and not very good, being only written to make money.....