On this occasion, judging a book by its cover worked out very well for me. My eye was initially caught by the title – I still have a childish fondness for characters with my name. Then the arresting self-portrait by Gwen John on the cover convinced me to buy it for 50p from a charity shop. I’d maybe half-heard of the title ‘Anna of the Five Towns’, without having any specific preconceptions. In form and content it reminded me of [b:The Rector's Daughter|1220032|The Rector's Daughter|F.M. Mayor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477226543s/1220032.jpg|1208509] and [b:The Post-Office Girl|2376087|The Post-Office Girl|Stefan Zweig|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347760549s/2376087.jpg|2382997], both sensitive and beautifully written portraits of young women constrained by circumstance. The titular Anna acts as housekeeper for her wealthy miser of a father and her younger sister. Like [b:The Rector's Daughter|1220032|The Rector's Daughter|F.M. Mayor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477226543s/1220032.jpg|1208509], ‘Anna of Five Towns’ has a relatively sparse plot, as it concentrates on Anna’s inner life. I found her a sympathetic and involving protagonist as she deals with her domineering father, her faith, and a suitor. Her calm, caution, and competence are admirable.

Bennett is clearly a writer of skill and the rural Victorian (possibly early Edwardian?) setting is shown in exquisite detail. There’s an extended scene in which Anna tours a pottery works and sees the step by step process of clay becoming a new dinner plate which especially stood out. It may not sound particularly compelling, but I was rather beguiled by the whole thing. The book feels like a window into a previous age, not sparing its darker sides. Indeed, the treatment of indebtedness was very powerful and reminded me of Zola. Although ‘Anna of the Five Towns’ is much gentler than [b:Germinal|28407|Germinal (Les Rougon-Macquart, #13)|Émile Zola|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388208755s/28407.jpg|941651], one of least gentle books I’ve ever read, it throws rural poverty into stark relief. Anna herself is in a paradoxical situation: her family are landlords and very well-off, while she personally has no access to any of this wealth. Thanks to her father, she has no servants, shabby home-made clothes, and a strict housekeeping budget. This position allows her to feel considerable empathy with tenants unable to pay their rent, although she isn’t an unrealistic paragon. On this theme:

The elaborate mechanism by which capital yields interest without suffering diminution from its original bulk is one of the commonest phenomena of modern life, and one of the least understood. Many capitalists never grasp it, nor experience the slightest curiosity about it until the mechanism through some defect ceases to revolve. Tellwright [Anna’s father] was of these, […] But to Anna, who had some imagination, and whose imagination was stirred by recent events, the arrival of moneys out of space, unearned, unasked, was a disturbing experience, affecting her as a conjuring trick affects a child, whose sensations hesitate between pleasure and apprehension. Practically, Anna could not believe that she was rich; and in fact she was not rich – she was merely a fixed point through which moneys that she was unable to arrest passed with the rapidity of trains.

As well as such commentary, the writing also imbues the settings with a wonderful level of texture. My favourite example was the page-long description of a sideboard, of which this is only a part:

In it was reflected the conscientious labour of generations. It had a soft and assuaged appearance, as though it had never been new and could never have been new. All its corners and edges had long lost the asperities of manufacture, and its smooth surfaces were marked by slight hollows similar in spirit to those worn by the naked feet of pilgrims into the marble steps of a shrine.

I loved ‘Anna of the Five Towns’ and would certainly read something else by Bennett. It was also pleasant to read an older novel for the first time in a little while; I think my fiction choices have been too modern recently. Anna is a protagonist who will linger in my mind long after this brief insight into her life, along with Mary Joyceln and Christine Hoflehner. ( )

"She had sucked in with her mother's milk the profound truth that a woman's life is always a renunciation, greater or less."

Amazon describes this as a book about a young woman's struggle to free herself from her domineering father. Anna Tellwright lives in the Staffordshire pottery towns and keeps house for her wealthy, miserly, and cruel father Ephraim, and her younger sister Agnes. When she turns 21, she is surprised to learn that she has inherited a tidy sum from her mother's estate. However, her life does not change much, as her father controls all of her funds. Sometimes, though, her father sends her out to badger those who owe her estate rent or other debts, a task she both despises and is not good at. There is also a good deal about Methodism, as Anna's social life revolves entirely around her church, which she attends nearly every day.

Henry Minor, an eligible bachelor, begins to court Anna, and she is flattered. She soon learns that he is interested in her as a potential source of funds for the new pottery factory he is starting. Nevertheless, she agrees to marry him, though she fears the wrath of her father.

The book conveys a strong sense of place. It is a bit thin on plot, with none of the meanderings and subplots of those great big Victorian novels. It raises some important themes--the plight of women, always under the thumb of men; evangelical religions; the plight of factory workers; and more--yet it never explores any of these issues very deeply. I enjoyed reading this book, but I wouldn't describe it as an important book. And in terms of reading pleasure, I enjoyed Bennett's The Old Wive's Tale much more.

3 stars ( )

I'm a sucker for stories about women's daily lives - from other: time periods, parts of the world, and/or facets of society. I'm kicking myself for not marking passages but Bennett has a way of describing a room, an object, a view, an interaction while actually telling you what he thinks about humans and the world we inhabit and have largely created. For what it's worth, I believe she chose the right man (even though she didn't actually consider her other option) - Anna spared her sister further from her father, the miser (delightful title). #drunkreview ( )

Early 20th century. After the Trollope book, this is an interesting take on capitalism and class. Also the story of the miser--which is interesting in the context of "Our Mutual Friend" which I'm also reading. Bennett is so much more intense about the issues of class and socialism which come into view in the late Victorian and early 20th century. Also mixes this in with an approach to methodism, religion, and also the potteries. This is a fine book and much of the twentieth rather than the 19th century. (Listened audiobook.) ( )

The books of Arnold Bennett seems curiously neglected these days. I've recently read 'The Card' which I love. In 'Anne Of The Five Towns' Bennett has produced a true tale of pathos. Anne is the eldest daughter of miser Tellwright. On her twenty-first birthday her father hands tells her that she is a rich woman. However her father still firmly controls this legacy so that she cannot do as she wishes with her life. Her life is crossed by two men,one rich and self-assured and the other weak and helpless.She marries the one although she really loves the other. ( )