It is amusing to find him writing to Sturt, in 1900, to persuade him that it would be a good idea to try to sell 'Bettesworth' to Pearson's (a firm for which he was not a reader and adviser)- he suggests that he himself write a preface for it, and that it be published under the title 'Talks with my Gardener: a study of the English peasant.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet
'Six weeks since I received your letter! ... I have no great interest in the theory of our sacred art.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Letter
'What pleasure hast thou given me during the last few days! First your letter then your essay ?Fruit Blossom Time? & then your nameless novel.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Letter, Sheet
'What pleasure hast thou given me during the last few days! First your letter then your essay "Fruit Blossom Time" & then your nameless novel. ...I am in a fever to finish the novel. Ken made me turn it up when I was at part ten. I shall, Sturto volente, animadvert at length upon it at a future date, Now, I will only say that I like it very much. Its calm, unabashed realism charms me. You find fault with Maupassant for his wealth of irrelevant ... detail. Frankly, I think you would do well to follow him some way in this. I don't think all his detail is irrelevant. . . . No, I believe in detail.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Letter, Sheet
'But in the case of a story like yours, which is over the heads of the foolish, amiable readers of our "bright little paper", but which I should like, for the good of literature & the credit of Woman, to have in the paper, I should prefer to throw the responsibility for the acceptance on my Editor?s shoulders.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet
'For exercise I have just ridden over to Ken?s for your novel, though I am so busy I haven?t time to read it today. I have, however, snatched 20 minutes for the first two chapters. The first, to me, at first reading, is somewhat shadowy, but the second, my pippin, is positively masterly.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Unknown
'Well, Sir, I have read your novel, & I am ready to bet a guinea to a gooseberry that, if read by Street, it will not be refused by John Lane for reasons artistic. ? It is one of the most genuinely original novels that I have ever read; I don?t mean original in design, but in the outlook of the author.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Sheet
'P.S. I also return the voyage diary. It is excellent, & I was very pleased with it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Manuscript: Unknown
'With regard to your article, though admiring of the ingenuity of it, I yearned to tear the argument to rags. There is scarcely a single statement in that article to which I do not take violent exception. . . . Webster was intensely pleased with it, dreamed of it I believe, & only his modesty stopped him from addressing you thereon a note of congratulation. Marriott read it with awe; possibly it opened his eye to the strange fact that other arts than painting have their absorbing mysteries of technique.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical
'I read 'A Year?s Exile' during the three hours? journey down here on Thursday afternoon, & have passed it on to Frank to review in Woman. As for me, I shall review it in Hearth & Home. I have now read it twice, and come to a definite conclusion about it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book
''I am glad to be able to praise your article in this month?s Cornhill with less reserve than you praise my novel.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Serial / periodical
I have just written an introduction to a posthumous work of George Sturt’s (who generally wrote under the name of George Bourne—very good. I mean really). In order to write it I read through all the letters I received from him in the course of about 28 years.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book
'It my be that I failed to understand "The Ascending Effort", but I did not mean to treat Bourne disrespectfully. [But] you will admit that Bourne's writing in its slightly grotesque heaviness made it very difficult to read the whole book in a spirit of impartiality[...].'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad Print: Book
