The Old Wives' Tale (Penguin Classics)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The Old Wives' Tale (1908) celebrates the romance of even the most ordinary lives as it tells the story of the two Baines sisters, placid stay-at-home Constance and rebellious Sophia, from their girlhood to their last days. They move from the family drapery shop in provincial Bursley during
the repressive mid-Victorian period to old age in the modern era of mass marketing and the internal combustion engine. The setting ranges from the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Bursley to a Paris brothel, the action from the controlled domestic routine of the Baines household to wife murder and the
Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1.
This edition of The Old Wives' Tale gives fascinating critical insights into Bennett's most wide-ranging novel, considered by many to be his masterpiece.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters--shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia--over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
--This text refers to the
Digital
edition.
The Old Wives' Tale (Penguin Classics)
The Old Wives' Tale (Penguin Classics),Arnold Bennett,John Wain,Penguin Classics,0140182551,Classics,Fiction,Franco-German War, 1870-1871,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Literature: Classics,Classic fiction,Fiction / Literary,Modern fiction
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