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abi_sarah's review against another edition
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
It was ok
I don’t usually read books that are this old, so I can’t say it was an easy read since it took me a while to get used to the writing style. Once I got into it though, I quite enjoyed the simplicity of Anna’s life and I feel like I learned a lot about the lives of women in the early 1900s.
Here are some of my thoughts I jotted down whilst I was reading ‘Anna of the Five Towns’
• Like Bridgerton but more legit
• I feel like I’m living it through the writing and the story feels more realistic than I expect a Bridgerton novel would be
• It’s actually quite fascinating reading about how women lived in the early 1900s - Anna’s priorities as a woman are quite basic and sometimes quite shocking, but also very modern, e.g. her father teaches her how to become a landlord and I found that so refreshing to read about - I wonder if that was common for the times, or if Anna would have been a rare case
• It also struck me that women were basing their social worth on the quality of the bakes they took to the markets/ fayres - I’m glad women have evolved to understand the value of their worth a lot more deeply!
• At times, Anna was so fickle as to let the words/ perceived thoughts of a man/ love interest prevent her from doing things that would bring her joy - I found this infuriating
• I found Anna’s relationship with her sister very poignant, the two of them and their mother must have formed extremely strong bonds of companionship with one another whilst being left by the men to keep the house
• When Anna left for the Isle of Man it must have been extremely scary for her, on a new type of transport over a seemingly endless mass of the deepest water they had ever crossed - it must have taken so much courage to step on that boat
• The emotional and hormonal response to the parentally controlled match making perfectly punctuated Anna’s personality as a young woman, showing her spiky and less “proper” tendencies - I liked this, it gave Anna more character and it was a large contributor to my liking of her as the protagonist
• Anna and Mynors’ courting was nothing short of awkward and forced. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for both of them the whole time, for Anna was trying so hard to become a “good wife” and do what she was told to maintain the good reputation of her family, whilst Mynors knew that Anna’s heart lat elsewhere yet still pursued the match
• I welcomed the scandal at around 85% - it was almost too little too late though! A scandal was next on the list for this kind of story, so I can’t say I was surprised to be reading about Anna’s straying from the life of a “good wife-to-be” but it was entertaining and set up the ending of the story well
Overall enjoyed it
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I don’t usually read books that are this old, so I can’t say it was an easy read since it took me a while to get used to the writing style. Once I got into it though, I quite enjoyed the simplicity of Anna’s life and I feel like I learned a lot about the lives of women in the early 1900s.
Here are some of my thoughts I jotted down whilst I was reading ‘Anna of the Five Towns’
• Like Bridgerton but more legit
• I feel like I’m living it through the writing and the story feels more realistic than I expect a Bridgerton novel would be
• It’s actually quite fascinating reading about how women lived in the early 1900s - Anna’s priorities as a woman are quite basic and sometimes quite shocking, but also very modern, e.g. her father teaches her how to become a landlord and I found that so refreshing to read about - I wonder if that was common for the times, or if Anna would have been a rare case
• It also struck me that women were basing their social worth on the quality of the bakes they took to the markets/ fayres - I’m glad women have evolved to understand the value of their worth a lot more deeply!
• At times, Anna was so fickle as to let the words/ perceived thoughts of a man/ love interest prevent her from doing things that would bring her joy - I found this infuriating
• I found Anna’s relationship with her sister very poignant, the two of them and their mother must have formed extremely strong bonds of companionship with one another whilst being left by the men to keep the house
• When Anna left for the Isle of Man it must have been extremely scary for her, on a new type of transport over a seemingly endless mass of the deepest water they had ever crossed - it must have taken so much courage to step on that boat
• The emotional and hormonal response to the parentally controlled match making perfectly punctuated Anna’s personality as a young woman, showing her spiky and less “proper” tendencies - I liked this, it gave Anna more character and it was a large contributor to my liking of her as the protagonist
• Anna and Mynors’ courting was nothing short of awkward and forced. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for both of them the whole time, for Anna was trying so hard to become a “good wife” and do what she was told to maintain the good reputation of her family, whilst Mynors knew that Anna’s heart lat elsewhere yet still pursued the match
• I welcomed the scandal at around 85% - it was almost too little too late though! A scandal was next on the list for this kind of story, so I can’t say I was surprised to be reading about Anna’s straying from the life of a “good wife-to-be” but it was entertaining and set up the ending of the story well
Overall enjoyed it
⭐️⭐️⭐️
tnt307's review against another edition
4.0
Je to skvělá ukázka toho, jak daleko může dojít výchova a manipulace, svým způsobem je to děsivé. Anna je oběť a ani to neví. Jako pohled na 19. století a kulturu je to skvělé.
pandora22's review against another edition
3.0
I LOVE HOW ARNOLD BENNETT HAS DEVELOPED THE CHARACTERS.
Especially the way he shows the father-daughter relationship... IT WOULD BE MORE BETTER TO SAY THAT I LOVED THE CHARACTERS MORE THAN THE STORY ITSELF.
PERHAPS I DIDN'T LIKE THE DRAMATIC END
Especially the way he shows the father-daughter relationship... IT WOULD BE MORE BETTER TO SAY THAT I LOVED THE CHARACTERS MORE THAN THE STORY ITSELF.
PERHAPS I DIDN'T LIKE THE DRAMATIC END
marttrm91's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mx_malaprop's review against another edition
1.0
If you let bad people push you around into doing bad things because you're too chickenhearted to stand up for yourself, up to the point where you, vulture-like, with zero scruples, and right in front of his face, scope out someone's house that he can no longer afford to live in after his father committed suicide partly because your family contributed to his ruin, with a mind to buy it and live there yourself after he's been driven out, then guess what? YOU TOO ARE A BAD PERSON, and I don't see why I should be bothered about you as a character!!
(Yes, I should allow for nuance &c. and acknowledge that it's not so much that people are "bad people" or "good people" but that people are complex and sometimes do bad things and sometimes do good things, but this novel wasn't exactly rife with nuance, so I don't feel like being generous towards it.)
(Still better than Howards End though!)
EDIT: It's not as if a character has to be likeable or sympathetic in order for me to care about what happens to them or to find a novel worthwhile. But if Bennett wanted to tell a "frog of a character finds herself in a Bunsen burner of moral squalor" story, then he should have been more purposeful about it - or just left that kind of thing to Edith Wharton, who can pull it off much better. Stick to the comedy, bro.
And I'm just over men writing these wilting-lily women characters who don't know their own mind and let men walk all over them and think for them.
(Yes, I should allow for nuance &c. and acknowledge that it's not so much that people are "bad people" or "good people" but that people are complex and sometimes do bad things and sometimes do good things, but this novel wasn't exactly rife with nuance, so I don't feel like being generous towards it.)
(Still better than Howards End though!)
EDIT: It's not as if a character has to be likeable or sympathetic in order for me to care about what happens to them or to find a novel worthwhile. But if Bennett wanted to tell a "frog of a character finds herself in a Bunsen burner of moral squalor" story, then he should have been more purposeful about it - or just left that kind of thing to Edith Wharton, who can pull it off much better. Stick to the comedy, bro.
And I'm just over men writing these wilting-lily women characters who don't know their own mind and let men walk all over them and think for them.
novelideea's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
bobsamson's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
beautyistruth's review against another edition
4.0
What an austerely beautiful novel. It took me back to reading D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf as a teen (same era and same country). It moved me and made me cry and it horrified me emotionally a little. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece by any means - it is ordinary - but, gentle and easy to read, it worked for me for obscure reasons. Probably because it is subtle, and real, and sad.
Set in a small town of the Staffordshire Potteries at the turn of the nineteenth century, Anna, the main character is the daughter of a rich miser. She keeps house for him along with her little sister Agnes and is courted by a popular local businessman, Mr Mynors. There is even a trip to the Isle of Man with the more socially sophisticated Suttons. This is the story of Anna's coming of age and finding her place in the world - from religious belief to the clothes she needs for society - or more gravely, to the money she inherits and of how her father's hard-headed business practices negatively affect a tenant businessman and his son, and of Anna's relations with them since it is actually her money that has been invested in them.
Set in a small town of the Staffordshire Potteries at the turn of the nineteenth century, Anna, the main character is the daughter of a rich miser. She keeps house for him along with her little sister Agnes and is courted by a popular local businessman, Mr Mynors. There is even a trip to the Isle of Man with the more socially sophisticated Suttons. This is the story of Anna's coming of age and finding her place in the world - from religious belief to the clothes she needs for society - or more gravely, to the money she inherits and of how her father's hard-headed business practices negatively affect a tenant businessman and his son, and of Anna's relations with them since it is actually her money that has been invested in them.
anonblueberry's review against another edition
4.0
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, given it had been consigned to the shelf of "university texts that I will get around to reading one of these days" (it's an ongoing project).
But yeah, it was an enjoyable read with believable characters. I did want to slap Anna occasionally though.
But yeah, it was an enjoyable read with believable characters. I did want to slap Anna occasionally though.
polyhy_14's review against another edition
4.0
Ephraim Tellwright is the landlord from hell. Rich but miserly, he keeps his tenants in squalor while extorting rent which they can't pay. He is equally tyrannical with his two motherless daughters. When his older daughter Anna turns 21, she comes into money of her own and her father insists on her taking over some of his business while still keeping a tight rein on how she conducts it. One day, she commits an act of defiance.
Like most authors of the classics, Arnold Bennett is equally at home in the sensate and intuitive worlds. He paints a vivid picture of the grime and squalor of industrial England in the late 19th century, contrasting it with rare flashes of beauty as seen in a night sky, glimpsed through a factory window or in the natural beauty and freshness of the Isle of Man. His characters engaged me from the opening page. Against the backdrop of Wesleyan Revivalism, his narrative creates a powerful sense of impending doom. However, at only 174 pages, I felt that he didn't allow enough time to develop the relationship between Anna and her two suitors, and after the preceding tensions, the ending was so abrupt that it lost much of its emotional impact. I would still recommend it for the beauty of its writing.
Like most authors of the classics, Arnold Bennett is equally at home in the sensate and intuitive worlds. He paints a vivid picture of the grime and squalor of industrial England in the late 19th century, contrasting it with rare flashes of beauty as seen in a night sky, glimpsed through a factory window or in the natural beauty and freshness of the Isle of Man. His characters engaged me from the opening page. Against the backdrop of Wesleyan Revivalism, his narrative creates a powerful sense of impending doom. However, at only 174 pages, I felt that he didn't allow enough time to develop the relationship between Anna and her two suitors, and after the preceding tensions, the ending was so abrupt that it lost much of its emotional impact. I would still recommend it for the beauty of its writing.