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A review by polyhy_14
Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
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.