Talk:Arnold Bennett/Archive 1

Non-Fiction works
The non-fiction list omits Bennett's 1915 book "Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front." While clearly biased towards England and France, it is a fine eyewitness memoir of the war's terrible destruction of lives, property and art.

Highcking (talk) 19:06, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Arnold Bennett, while perhaps best known for his Clayhanger series and The Old Wives' Tale, was actually a very prolific writer and wrote plays, newspaper articles and several non-fiction works, the most popular of which was most probably How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

topher67 08:51, 2004 Sep 21 (UTC)

neutral POV
There are some comments in the "Works" and "Criticism" sections that are unattributed opinions, such as: "Bennett believed in ordinary people. His style reminds one of Maupassant, one of the French writers on whom he modeled himself. Bennett made simple things and ordinary people interesting. He has also documented the daily life in the Potteries as well as anyone could have done."

Also: ''"This may have been unfair - did critics search for weakness on the assumption that writing for financial gain must give rise to it? Did they attribute a genuine weakness in Bennett's work to an unrelated factor? Or were they making an unbiased and valid point? It must also be recognised that Bennett represented the "old guard" in literary terms. His style was traditional rather than modern, which made him an obvious target for those challenging literary conventions. His reputation, for much of the 20th Century, was tainted by this perception, and it was not until the 1990s that a more positive view of his work became widely accepted." ''

These need to either be attributed or changed to reflect a more neutral POV. Does anyone know if these are original opinions from an editor or if there are sources for these opinions? Freeguam 01:30, 15 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I can't take any credit for the first paragraph, although it is accurate (afaik). The second one is from me, is accurate, but does need references. I'll see what I can find. Tomandlu 08:29, 15 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Regarding the second paragraph, I feel that the first portion provides a NPOV because it simply asks questions from different points of view, provoking thoughts. I can't really say the rest for the second half without citations. --Etni3s 05:36, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Family Tradition
According to Bennett family tradition his Great Great Grandfather was a natural son of James Brindley, John Bennett. --jmb 13:24, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Mother's name
I thought it was very interesting that his mother's name was not on this page. Does anyone know what it is and if so I think it'd be beneficial to insert it. --Etni3s 17:55, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Death
I'm offended that "82.152.166.25" made (very big) edits to the below - this is a great breach of Wikipedia etiquette. These are the comment pages, not the article pages. You do not edit other people's comments. Add comments below them if you wish, giving your name, but it is breaching the etiquette here to either delete things entirely or edit other people's comments. This is what I wrote before someone else edited it:

Rather disapointed to see that "Alanmaher" had entirely deleted my previous similar comment here about his death on the grounds that it was irrelevant.

I had heard that he died after drinking a caraffe of water at a hotel to prove that it was harmless, during an epidemic. I cannot see how that interesting death is irrelevant. If it is not true, then it may need denying as an old wives tale. I though it was in Italy but I see the article says he caught typhoid in France. Very arrogant to completely delete it rather than the usual practice of commenting on it. 92.29.117.90 (talk) 14:16, 16 March 2011 (UTC)


 * This is supported by an entry in the Typhoid fever article: "Arnold Bennett, English novelist, died in 1931 of typhoid, two months after drinking a glass of water in a Paris Hotel to prove it was safe." More details are given here - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_1_54/ai_n27963058/ - that he drank tap water before and after dining with some friends. This http://www.jrank.org/health/pages/33612/typhoid-%E2%80%94-Great-Killers.html said that he was the last person in London for whom straw was put down in the street outside while he was ill. An interesting death, worth recording. Even if his final months did not affect his earlier writing, it could have influenced the critics and publics subsequent opinion of him and his work. 92.29.117.90 (talk) 14:31, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Citing personal knowledge, other websites, and Wikipedia is not the way to go. It is easy enought to search Google books to find a reference. The water and straw information seems sourced to . As for whether the information should go in the article, Featured article criteria notes neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context; it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature. So is this a major fact, a major detail, does it place Bennett in context, is it representative of what is out there on Bennett? Depending on the life he lead, the drinking of the water and/or the straw might help place him in context to better convey who he was as a person and how others reacted to him. OTOH, it could just be some wacky trivia. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 03:59, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * In most other articles a web-source is sufficient, although a paper source would I suppose be preferred. The information given here is of course work-in-progress, allowing others such as yourself to find better sources giving more detail. It is not meant to be an absolute statement that cannot be improved on or further refined or clarified as additional information becomes available. 92.15.2.23 (talk) 14:52, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the significance of the straw, or whether or not it is "wacky trivia", hinges on how unusual was laying straw by this date. It was previously common to do so in Europe, at least for important people.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.152.221.148 (talk) 09:05, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
 * An unusual death story and the straw - last person in London to have it done - means that the author is better remembered by the public and critics after his death, so they continue to read and think about his books. It is unrealistic to suppose that it is only the author's works, without any publicity or fame of the writer, that contributes to their lasting fame. A lot of the interest in authors, for example Hemmingway, cames from their own personality and their mode of death. The drinking of harmful tap water tells us something of the author's personality, and the strwa on the streets tells us of the regard he was held in at the time. 92.15.2.23 (talk) 14:47, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

No WikiProject Staffordshire to help with this article
I was expecting this article to be under the jurisdiction of a project called Wikipedia: WikiProject Staffordshire. However, having just looked at WikiProject England, I notice that Staffordshire is one of the English counties that does not have a WikiProject. If there were one, this could certainly be an article it should be interested in. I do not feel as if I could start the wikiproject myself, as the county where I have lived since 1993 is Northamptonshire, not Staffordshire, but if any one does know about this county, s/he could start a wikiproject here. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 18:51, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 08:16, 29 April 2016 (UTC)