The Old Wives' TaleRegarded as one of Arnold Bennett's finest works, The Old Wives' Tale was first published in 1908. It tells the story of sisters Constance and Sophia Baines, both very different from one another, and follows their lives from youth into old age. Bennett's inspiration was an encounter in a Parisian restaurant: "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." and "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." Every stout, ageing woman is not grotesque--far from it!--but there is an extreme pathos in the mere fact that every stout ageing woman was once a young girl with the unique charm of youth in her form and movements and in her mind. And the fact that the change from the young girl to the stout ageing woman is made up of an infinite number of infinitesimal changes, each unperceived by her, only intensifies the pathos." |
Contents
| 5 | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | |
| 53 | |
| 73 | |
Chapter IV Elephant | 138 |
Chapter V The Traveller | 172 |
Chapter VI Escapade | 209 |
Chapter VIII The Proudest Mother | 522 |
BOOK III SOPHIA | 542 |
Chapter I The Elopement | 543 |
Chapter II Supper | 568 |
Chapter III An Ambition Satisfied | 599 |
Chapter IV A Crisis for Gerald | 634 |
Chapter V Fever | 672 |
Chapter VI The Siege | 740 |
Chapter VII A Defeat | 244 |
BOOK II CONSTANCE | 272 |
Chapter I Revolution | 273 |
Chapter II Christmas and the Future | 310 |
Chapter III Cyril | 338 |
Chapter IV Crime | 376 |
Chapter V Another Crime | 412 |
Chapter VI The Widow | 474 |
Chapter VII Bricks and Mortar | 497 |
Chapter VII Success | 791 |
BOOK IV WHAT LIFE IS | 824 |
Chapter I Frenshams | 825 |
Chapter II The Meeting | 885 |
Chapter III Towards Hotel Life | 934 |
Chapter IV End of Sophia | 1015 |
Chapter V End of Constance | 1077 |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon antimacassar apron asked Aunt Harriet Baines's beautiful bedroom began Bursley Chirac Constance and Sophia Constance's corner corridor Critchlow Cyril Daniel Povey door drawing-room dress exclaimed eyes face father felt Five Towns Fossette francs gave gaze Gerald Scales gesture girl glanced hand harmonium head heard Hortense Schneider hour John Baines King Street kitchen knew Knype laudanum laughed leave lips lived looked Lord Byron Luke's Square Madame Foucault Maggie Mardon Matthew Miss Chetwynd Miss Insull morning mother murmured mysterious never night o'clock once Paris parlour Peel-Swynnerton peignoir Povey's replied Samuel Povey scarcely sciatica seemed servant showroom Siege of Paris sister smiled stairs stared strange suddenly suppose sure Swynnerton talk tell things thought told tone voice whispered wife window woman word young