Arnold Bennett

El destino de Denry Machin parece estar escrito en piedra: hijo de una costurera, trabaja como secretario y no tiene aspiraciones que estén por encima de su clase social. Pero, de repente, todo cambia cuando descubre que tiene la oportunidad de incluir su nombre en la lista de invitados al baile de la condesa de Chell. En la fiesta, le gana una apuesta al rico Harold Etches y unos dias mas tarde, cuando su jefe lo despide, las ganancias constituyen su unico sustento economico. A partir de entonces, Denry enlaza una aventura con otra en un arduo intento por convertirse en una persona de renombre. Y cuando menos se lo espera, encuentra el amor, o eso cree el.Ambientada en la segunda mitad del s. XIX, El as nos muestra al Arnold Bennett de humor mas brillante y con mas gancho: tanto las ambiciones del personaje principal como su vida amorosa estan marcadas por situaciones ridiculas y divertidas. Ademas, la aguzada mirada satirica de Bennett sobre la gente de provincias que vive en la region denominada the Potteries, famosa por la industria de la ceramica, no hace sino potenciar el divertimento.Esta novela clave de Arnold Bennett, ambientada en la region"The Potteries"donde tienen lugar sus obras mas destacadas, hara las delicias del lector. Denry Machin lo tiene todo para pasar desapercibido en la vida: u...

Priam Farll es el más reputado pintor de Inglaterra: célebre por sus cuadros sobre policías y pingüinos, es adorado por el público y la crítica. Tímido como un cervatillo, nadie conoce su aspecto, pues lleva años viviendo en el extranjero junto con su criado Henry Leek, un granuja de tomo y lomo. Un día regresa a Londres de incógnito, y Leek tiene el mal detalle con su amo de fallecer súbitamente de pulmonía. El doctor que certifica la muerte confunde a Leek con Priam Farll, y pronto la noticia corre como la pólvora: el gran pintor ha muerto. Farll ve el cielo abierto y decide no sacar al mundo de su error: finge que es Henry Leek, y hasta asiste a su propio entierro en la abadía de Westminster. Es entonces cuando entra en escena una pizpireta viuda de Putney, Alice Challice, que estaba prometida en matrimonio por correspondencia con Leek, y con quien Farll se aliará para luchar contra las adversidades de la vida moderna. Una sensacional comedia de enredo, suplantación y dobles identidades, elegida por Jorge Luis Borges como parte de su biblioteca personal.

He turned to the left, toward the High Street and the great cleared space out of which the cellarage of the new Town Hall had already been scooped. He carried his thick gloves in his white and elegant hand, as one who did not feel the frost. She stepped after him. Their breaths whitened the keen air. She was extremely afraid, and considered herself an abject coward, but she was determined to the point of desperation. He ought to know the truth and he ought to know it at once: nothing else mattered. She reflected in her terror: "If I don't begin right off, he will be asking me to begin, and that will be worse than ever."

Cuento de viejas, la novela más representativa del naturalismo inglés, narra la historia de una familia de comerciantes de las Potteries (la famosa región productora de alfarería del centro-norte de Inglaterra) a lo largo de tres generaciones, desde los años sesenta del siglo XIX hasta comienzos del XX, en el marco de las transformaciones sociales y tecnologicas que tienen lugar en la Inglaterra contemporanea, salvo el Libro III, que se desarrolla integramente en Francia, siguiendo las peripecias de una de las dos protagonistas, Sofia y Constanza Baines, y esta dominado por el clima creado en Paris por la guerra franco-prusiana de 1870. El titulo nos remite al final, cuando las protagonistas (dos hermanas al principio adolescentes) son ya ancianas y, tras haber llevado unas vidas divergentes, vuelven a confluir en su ultima etapa.

Every town should have a 'card' - someone who gets talked about, someone who does mad and wonderful things, someone who makes you laugh. Bursley in the Five Towns has a 'card': Edward Henry Machin (Denry for short). Denry begins life in a poor little house where the rent is twenty-three pence a week. But before he's thirty, he's made a lot of money, and had more adventures than you and I have had hot dinners. The town of Bursley never stops talking about him. Whatever will young Denry do next?

In Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways, Bennett followed the development of a relationship from two very different perspectives. He now draws these together in a finale that sees the two young protagonists embarking upon married life. One might expect a fairy tale romance, but both Edwin and Hilda are extremely strong-willed, and this clash of personalities makes for a marriage that often hovers on the brink of failure. This concluding volume of the Clayhanger trilogy contains some of Bennett's very finest work, depicting superb scenes from provincial life and painting a powerful picture of the conflict of wills in an inharmonious marriage.

Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist. He was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 he went to London as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in Tit Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing, giving up the editorship and writing much serious criticism, and also theatre journalism, one of his special interests. In 1902 Anna of the Five Towns, the first of a succession of stories which detailed life in the Potteries, appeared. In 1908 The Old Wives' Tale was published, and was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world. His most famous works are the Clayhanger (1910) trilogy and The Old Wives' Tale. These books draw on his experience of life in the Potteries, as did most of his best work. Among his other books are: The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907), Hilda Lessways (1911), The Author's Craft (1914), The Lion's Share (1916), and The Roll-Call (1919).

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"How to Live" is a personal development series by Arnold Bennett. The trilogy addresses corporate workers and people who to work every day from nine to five. Bennett offers them practical advice on how to live life to the full potential as opposed to just exist.

¿Hay una combinación más intrínsecamente humana que esa guerra sin cuartel entre libertad y fiesta, violencia y sacrificio, carácter y frustración que es el fútbol? Espejo del Homo ludens descrito por Huizinga: ese afortunado personaje con el don de jugar, el verdadero sentido de su vida. El fútbol todo lo convierte en representación, en espectáculo, pero nunca dejará de ser otras muchas cosas; entre ellas, uno de esos hilos invisibles que padres e hijos se inventan con el fin de unirse para siempre. Instalados frente a una maquinita súper engrasada con millones de euros, dólares, yenes, pesos, y retransmitida urbi et orbe.

Una sensacional comedia de enredo, suplantación y dobles identidades, elegida por Jorge Luis Borges como parte de su biblioteca personal.Priam Farll es el más reputado pintor de Inglaterra: célebre por sus cuadros sobre policias y pinguinos, es adorado por el publico y la critica. Timido como un cervatillo, nadie conoce su aspecto, pues lleva años viviendo en el extranjero junto con su criado Henry Leek, un granuja de tomo y lomo. Un dia regresa a Londres de incognito, y Leek tiene el mal detalle con su amo de fallecer subitamente de pulmonia. El doctor que certifica la muerte confunde a Leek con Priam Farll, y pronto la noticia corre como la polvora: el gran pintor ha muerto. Farll ve el cielo abierto y decide no sacar al mundo de su error: finge que es Henry Leek, y hasta asiste a su propio entierro en la abadia de Westminster. Es entonces cuando entra en escena una pizpireta viuda de Putney, Alice Challice, que estaba prometida en matrimonio por correspondencia con Leek, y con quien Farll se aliara para luchar contra las adversidades de la vida moderna.

In the autumn of 1903 I used to dine frequently in a restaurant in the Rue de Clichy, Paris. Here were, among others, two waitresses that attracted my attention. One was a beautiful, pale young girl, to whom I never spoke, for she was employed far away from the table which I affected. The other, a stout, middle-aged managing Breton woman, had sole command over my table and me, and gradually she began to assume such a maternal tone towards me that I saw I should be compelled to leave that restaurant. If I was absent for a couple of nights running she would reproach me sharply: "What! you are unfaithful to me?" Once, when I complained about some French beans, she informed me roundly that French beans were a subject which I did not understand. I then decided to be eternally unfaithful to her, and I abandoned the restaurant. A few nights before the final parting an old woman came into the restaurant to dine. She was fat, shapeless, ugly, and grotesque. She had a ridiculous voice, and ridiculous gestures. It was easy to see that she lived alone, and that in the long lapse of years she had developed the kind of peculiarity which induces guffaws among the thoughtless. She was burdened with a lot of small parcels, which she kept dropping. She chose one seat; and then, not liking it, chose another; and then another. In a few moments she had the whole restaurant laughing at her. That my middle-aged Breton should laugh was indifferent to me, but I was pained to see a coarse grimace of giggling on the pale face of the beautiful young waitress to whom I had never spoken.I reflected, concerning the grotesque diner: "This woman was once young, slim, perhaps beautiful; certainly free from these ridiculous mannerisms. Very probably she is unconscious of her singularities. Her case is a tragedy. One ought to be able to make a heartrending novel out of the history of a woman such as she.