Books and Persons

Books and Persons

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Books and Persons, by Arnold
Bennett This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Books and Persons Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911
Author: Arnold Bennett
Release Date: April 26, 2005 [EBook #15717]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOOKS
AND PERSONS ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

Books and Persons
BEING COMMENTS ON A PAST EPOCH 1908-1911 BY ARNOLD
BENNETT
LONDON Chatto & Windus 1917
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
NOVELS A MAN FROM THE NORTH ANNA OF THE FIVE
TOWNS LEONORA A GREAT MAN SACRED AND PROFANE
LOVE WHOM GOD HATH JOINED BURIED ALIVE THE OLD
WIVES' TALE THE GLIMPSE HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND
CLAYHANGER HILDA LESSWAYS THE CARD THE REGENT

THE PRICE OF LOVE THESE TWAIN THE LION'S SHARE
FANTASIAS THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL THE GATES OF
WRATH TERESA OF WATLING STREET THE LOOT OF CITIES
HUGO THE GHOST THE CITY OF PLEASURE
SHORT STORIES TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS THE GRIM
SMILE OF THE FIVE TOWNS THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE
TOWNS
_BELLES-LETTRES_
JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN FAME AND FICTION HOW TO
BECOME AN AUTHOR THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR
MENTAL EFFICIENCY HOW TO LIVE ON TWENTY-FOUR
HOURS A DAY THE HUMAN MACHINE LITERARY TASTE
FRIENDSHIP AND HAPPINESS THOSE UNITED STATES PARIS
NIGHTS MARRIED LIFE LIBERTY OVER THERE: WAR SCENES
THE AUTHOR'S CRAFT
DRAMA POLITE FARCES CUPID AND COMMONSENSE WHAT
THE PUBLIC WANTS THE HONEYMOON THE GREAT
ADVENTURE MILESTONES. (_In Collaboration with Edward
Knoblock_)
(_In Collaboration with Eden Phillpotts_)
THE SINEWS OF WAR: A ROMANCE THE STATUE: A
ROMANCE

Books and Persons
BEING COMMENTS ON A PAST EPOCH 1908-1911 BY ARNOLD
BENNETT
LONDON Chatto & Windus 1917

_First published June 1917_ _Second Impression Aug. 1917_

PRINTED AT THE COMPLETE PRESS WEST NORWOOD
LONDON

TO HUGH WALPOLE

PREFATORY NOTE
The contents of this book have been chosen from a series of weekly
articles which enlivened the New Age during the years 1908, 1909,
1910, and 1911, under the pseudonym "Jacob Tonson." The man
responsible for the republication is the dedicatee, who, having
mysteriously demanded from me back numbers of the New Age, sat in
my house one Sunday afternoon and in four hours read through the
entire series. He then announced that he had made a judicious selection,
and that the selection must positively be issued in volume form. Mr.
Frank Swinnerton approved the selection and added to it slightly. In my
turn I suggested a few more additions. The total amounts to one-third
of the original matter. Beyond correcting misprints, softening the
crudity of several epithets, and censoring lines here and there which
might give offence without helping the sacred cause, I have not altered
the articles. They appear as they were journalistically written in Paris,
London, Switzerland, and the Forest of Fontainebleau. In particular I
have left the critical judgments alone, for the good reason that I stand
by nearly all of them, though perhaps with a less challenging vivacity,
to this day.
ARNOLD BENNETT
_February 1917_

CONTENTS
1908
WILFRED WHITTEN'S PROSE 3 UGLINESS IN FICTION 8
LETTERS OF QUEEN VICTORIA 11 FRENCH PUBLISHERS 16
WORDSWORTH'S SINGLE LINES 18 NOVELISTS AND AGENTS
22 THE NOVEL OF THE SEASON 26 GERMAN EXPANSION 30
THE BOOK-BUYER 32 JOSEPH CONRAD AND THE
_ATHENÆUM_ 36 THE PROFESSORS 41 MRS. HUMPHRY
WARD'S HEROINES 47 W.W. JACOBS AND ARISTOPHANES 53

KENNETH GRAHAME 57 ANATOLE FRANCE 59 INTIMATIONS
OF IMMORTALITY 63 MALLARMÉ, BAZIN, SWINBURNE 65
THE RUINED SEASON 68
1909
"ECCE HOMO" 77 HENRY OSPOVAT 79 FRENCH AND BRITISH
ACADEMIES 81 POE AND THE SHORT STORY 84
MIDDLE-CLASS 88 THE POTENTIAL PUBLIC 101 H.G. WELLS
109 TCHEHKOFF 117 THE SURREY LABOURER 120
SWINBURNE 123 THE SEVENPENNIES 130 MEREDITH 134 ST.
JOHN HANKIN 140 UNCLEAN BOOKS 143 LOVE POETRY 145
TROLLOPE'S METHODS 148 CHESTERTON AND LUCAS 150
OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF POETRY 155 ARTISTS AND
CRITICS 158 RUDYARD KIPLING 160 CENSORSHIP BY THE
LIBRARIES 167
1910
CENSORSHIP BY THE LIBRARIES 181 BRIEUX 195 C.E.
MONTAGUE 201 PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS 204
TOURGENIEV AND DOSTOIEVSKY 208 JOHN GALSWORTHY
214 SUPPRESSIONS IN "DE PROFUNDIS" 217 HOLIDAY
READING 222 THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF LETTERS 228
UNFINISHED PERUSALS 235 MR. A.C. BENSON 239 THE
LITERARY PERIODICAL 242 THE LENGTH OF NOVELS 248
ARTISTS AND MONEY 250 HENRI BECQUE 255 HENRY JAMES
263 ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM 267 MRS. ELINOR GLYN
271 W.H. HUDSON 278 NEO-IMPRESSIONISM AND
LITERATURE 280
1911
BOOKS OF THE YEAR 289 "THE NEW MACHIAVELLI" 294
SUCCESS IN JOURNALISM 300 MARGUERITE