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
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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 _ATHEN?UM_ 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 MALLARM��, 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 AUDOUX 305 JOHN MASEFIELD 311 LECTURES AND STATE PERFORMANCES 315 A PLAY OF TCHEHKOFF'S 321 SEA AND SLAUGHTER 325 A BOOK IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT 328 "FICTION" AND "LITERATURE" 331
INDEX 333

1908

WILFRED WHITTEN'S PROSE
[_4 Apr. '08_]
An important book on an important town is to be