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Riceyman Steps
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 460 ratings, 78 reviews)
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Riceyman Steps
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
Arnold Bennett's superb London novel—both a story about one grim household and a panorama of the life of a great city.
Henry Earlforward, a shabby Clerkenwell bookseller, has retired from life to devote himself (and his wife Violet) to a consuming passion for money. Miserliness becomes a fatal illness, and Bennett provides a terrifying description of its ravages. However, the book's grim situation is alleviated through the character of Elsie, whose life-affirming refusal to engage with the nightmarish world of the bookseller transforms the story.
Bennett aimed in Riceyman Steps to create an English novel as powerful as anything by Balzac, the writer he most admired, with the same sense of great human issues being played out within the confines of a household. The result is an unforgettable work which is also a gripping depiction of the harsh, battered London of the period just after the First World War.
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett is generally praised for its detailed character development and vivid portrayal of post-World War I England. The novel captures the nuances of everyday life with subtle humour and psychological insight. Some readers appreciate its exploration of human desires and social complexities, although a few note it may be slow-paced.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780241255797
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 29 September 2016
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 258g
Pages: 352
About the Author
Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was one of the most versatile, ambitious and successful British novelists of the early 20th century. His novels and short stories both celebrate and deplore a rapidly changing Britain. Much of his greatest work is set where he grew up, in the Potteries of the West Midlands. Inspired by Zola and Maupassant, he realized that this world of brutal industrial work and rapid social change, religious severity and material temptation, was the perfect backdrop for everything from comedy to tragedy. He died of typhoid.
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