Word: bennetts
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Significance. It is underneath the structure of his stories, behind the titles and estates of his characters, that Author Bennett's genius is to be found. It is a genius shy of formality, making hash of what is conventionally expected of it in the way of dramatic climax, contributing richly at moments when reader and characters are least expectant. Who will may hunt for traces of Lloyd George and Lord Northcliffe in Andy Clyth and Sam Raingo but the wealth of this book lies in the subtle asides of the two fictitious figures and in the host of minor...
...Author. Enoch Arnold Bennett has led an industrious, unspectacular life since being born 59 years ago among the potteries of Staffordshire. Everything interests him, especially humble, "uninteresting" people. His published books and plays, persistently captivating, now number over two score. He has a French wife, steam yacht...
...judge Mr. Bennett's latest novel by his own literary standards were an act of tolerance which would demand the suppression of fervid personal reaction on the part of the critics as well as an intimate knowledge of Mr. Bennetts psychology. Assuming, then, that "Lord Raingo" is all it is intended to be, the reader's disappointment mounts through nearly 400 pages from mild distaste to a peak of pure chagrin and positive depression...
...Bennett's medium is not the X-ray, which penetrates its subject and discoveds unguessed-at causes, nor is it the telescope, which brings out the concomitant phenomena of an object, relegating that object to its proper environment. He depends solely upon the misroscope for his effect. "Lord Raingo" is a meticulous examination of multitudinous minutiae, and little more than that. The Bennett of old was wont to sport with his realistic characers by plunging them into romantic situations, as in "The Grand Babylon Hotel," or "Buried Alive." His latest effort, however, deals with a prosy old codger who maunders...
...some, "Lord Raingo" may appear a magnificent exposition of realism. But it is a case of homeopathic remedy administered in an allopathic dose. Mr. Bennett definitely crosses the line where realism merges into tautological flatulence. Elegence of style, felicity of phrase, restraint, suggestion these prerequisites to delight in reading, all are submerged in an ocean of microcosms, and uninteresting ones at that...