"MY ARNOLD BENNETT"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 17

"MY ARNOLD BENNETT"

BOOK BY HIS WIDOW

Mrs. Arnold Bennett, a Frenchwoman, has written an astonishing and candid book about her late husband, says our London correspondent. She married liiniin' 1907, and they parted about ten years-ago'after fourteen years of matrimony.:: ■." ■ ; • -. ■ • .'- .':... :■■

She recalls the day on which she was asked to-leave Kef husband's flat. They had been away for the summer. Mrs;. Bennett returned "to London before her husband to have the flat ready. "Two days ,afterwards,;'"shej says, "asla re: suit of; a misunderstanding' with my husband, I was asked, to my surprise, by our to leave our flat at once, for the sake of Arnold's work. I obeyed like an ignorant fool, and. I was never allowed to return to it. There' was no.-judicial separation, but a deed of separation was drawn. We | have lived apart ever ■ since. To me,'years of intense loneliness and suffering. .. : . I think iiny, husband came to the conclusion,, after a while, that our separation was'a mistake, but circumstances overwhelmed him , . .. . he was in love with life, not with security. • •■W.e felt no.resentment,,,but I have always felt, and I still claim, that our separation was a great mistake, which could have beon easily avoided if other-people had minded .their .own. business and if my husband had not been an influential man that people played up to."- , Mrs. Bennett of herself!, in rather an astonishing way: "He; loved my : ways," she said, "my quietness, my voice, my.way of dressing; adorning myself,-.my ;tall;, and tslim:..; figure, my., dark eyes,I:miy long black'hai'r, my clean complexion, my small head, with its quick, unexpected movements, with its straight;nose, its thin lips with curves smoothing my big mouth. My Madonna type.appealed to him, the man,'phy(sically so unlike me, at first sight. Those around us, knowing 1 s both, were well aware that, fundamentally speaking, Arnold and I were born for each other. ] ... ■. .; Arnold was by nature a bachelor. . ■ ..-'.. Personally.; I have hated my freedom. All these yeiars I have followed the; wonderful .progress ,of Arnold's success v up 'till the end. I have heard from him every quarter, when; sending, my allowance, (not fixed by law, but by himself of v his own free will), ,and when .writing to me at Christmas and on my -birthday without fail.' Can I believe Arnold.no longer loved mcl I cannot i . . and death has taken; him- away. , How sad I feel,'? Mrs. Bennett writes, "that with -Comfort,and care he might have lived much longer; He knew how to lookafter himself; that is, he did see doctors when, necessary;and, followed' their advice conscientiously—but he was not master of.circumstances which overwhelmed, him, wearied him.... Work and :iviorry were the" two microbes which werev.eating up his tremendous energy and his good constitution." '-'■:..:.: Mrs. Bennett gives a penetrating sketch of her husband's character:— ''Arnold Bennett was.-, not,, sentimental; yet .he,, was fascinated' :by.v"thjblse who were, whqn: they •happened to be, sincere. . 5 ..,.; When people appealed :.to. him, appealed to the real man in '■* him; the/ man of modest, simple needs fighting against the artificial' man in him; who craved for luxury,,, change of-scenery and surroundings^ .Wanting lots ,; of money> otherwise.."fbrass/ in r the language: of the Five Towns—the mail whose ambition'ihad no limitations: the man capable of {being spoilt, by/success and flatterf; if n%%ere M .earefulj^', man who had tp.be backed 'up' by honest - and^ sentimental pebple/rstf1 as'; to fallow the artificial miin to-'get there*• fofr certain!; How well mjr husband knew himself! How witty and sarcastic he was about the two distinct men in him! And how reverent he was to the third roan, the superman; the artist!" ■ Bennett wrote the whole of "The Old Wives' Tale" in printed letters, ;so that his French wife,, -then learniwg.English, should have less difficulty m reading it.', < 'Icould scarcely beheve it possible," says his wife. "But what he had said he would do he did. . ... iHe stuck to it., -A huge task only possible, to a man of determination. . . . The book took him exactly eight months to'-write; What an /achievement and what a 1 success! Soon after the success ;of *,The Old Wives' Tale,' he said to me: 'We shall be very, rich. : I will sco to it. You may rely-on me, mychildl' " '