Description:
Riceyman Steps explores the life of Henry Earlforward, a thrifty bookseller in post-WWI London, whose miserly ways challenge the very fabric of love, survival, and human connection in the shadow of societal upheaval.
Brief description: Enoch Arnold Bennett, better known as Arnold Bennett, was an English author and novelist who made important contributions to literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born on May 27, 1867, in Hanley, Staffordshire. His father, a lawyer, wanted him to become a lawyer like him, but Bennett was more interested in writing. After working at a law office in London for a short period of time, he decided to pursue a career in literature full time, starting in 1900.Bennett produced a large amount of work during his lifetime. He wrote 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays, and a daily journal of over a million words. Apart from his novels and plays, he also wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals. This made him one of the most financially successful British authors of his time. Bennett's life was cut short when he got typhoid fever and passed away in 1931. He contracted it from drinking tap water during a trip to France. His death marked the end of a productive and influential writing career.
Review Quotes:
Set in a bookshop in post-war London, it felt like an escape into a world both familiar and unfamiliar. I loved it. (Shaun Bythell - 26 Dec 2020 - The Herald)
[Bennett] improves every time you read him, whether it is his diary or his novels. I reread Riceyman's Steps recently and felt that there could be no more satisfactory novel. (A.J.P Taylor - 6 Dec 1984 - London Review of Books)
Bennett said, "I have written between 70 and 80 books. But also I have written only four: The Old Wives' Tale, The Card, Clayhanger and Riceyman Steps." All the others, he said, were made a reproach to him because they were none of the above. (Ian Jack - 17 Sep 2005 - The Guardian)
[Bennett] was a great novelist, as anyone who has read Riceyman's Steps or the Clayhanger trilogy would attest. (A.N. Wilson - 16 April 2022 - The Spectator)
[Bennett's] trademark was versatility: he wrote swiftly, in all the genres and on every level. His best novels ("The Old Wives' Tale," "Clayhanger," "Hilda Lessways," "These Twain" and "Riceyman Steps") were admired by James, Conrad, Wells and Gide; and Bennett was widely praised for his ability to render the variety, beauty, drama and significance behind the drab surfaces of provincial life. (Lawrence Graver - 1 Sep 1974 - The New York Times)
In 1923, Arnold won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Riceyman Steps. It was to be his last notable work before his death in 1931 from Typhoid, at his home in Baker Street, London. (Adam Gratton - 25 July 2018 - StokeonTrentLive)