Synopses & Reviews
This is the fourth, often neglected, book of the Clayhanger series, and concerns the young life of Clayhanger’s stepson, George. George Edwin Cannon (he quickly dropped the surname Clayhanger), is an architect, in many ways representing the ambitions held by his stepfather, Edwin. However, he possesses an arrogance endowed by family wealth, and Bennett examines, with some aplomb, the difficulty of bringing up children without spoiling them. It is a riveting tale that eventually sees George in the army and a fitting finale to one of the finest series in English literature.
About the Author
Enoch Arnold Bennett, the son of a solicitor, was born in Hanley, which is in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. He was initially employed by his father, a solicitor, and at age twenty-one moved to London, initially to again work as a solicitor’s clerk. However, he soon turned to writing popular serial fiction and editing a women’s magazine. After publication of many articles and stories in serial form, his first novel A Man From the North was published in 1898. This novel was received with critical acclaim and Bennett became a full-time professional writer and moved to Paris where he became a man of cosmopolitan and discerning tastes. During the First World War, Arnold Bennett became director of propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information at the behest of Lord Beaverbrook, whose experiences during the First World War were to later inspire Bennett to write the novel Lord Raingo. At the end of the war, he was offered a knighthood, but refused it.