James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
Riceyman Steps
A novel centered on a London second-hand bookseller, tracing how obsession and poverty tighten around everyday life.
Work Information
Through the life of a second-hand bookseller, the novel sketches obsession and depletion.
An Arnold Bennett novel that builds its portrait of a second-hand bookseller’s greed and everyday erosion through sharp detail.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Dover Publications
- Published
- 2020-04-15
- Pages
- 304 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780486843469
- ISBN-10
- 0486843467
- Price
- 4636 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Classics
In the "great metropolitan industrial district" of East London, Riceyman Steps lead from King's Cross Road to Riceyman Square. Here in this busy neighborhood, Henry Earlforward, the proprietor of a secondhand bookstore, takes a keen interest in Violet Arb, the widowed owner of a nearby confectionary shop. The middle-aged shopkeepers marry, but their chance for late-in-life happiness is increasingly shadowed by Henry's compulsive miserliness. Violet slowly realizes that her husband views everyday necessities — heating, electricity, even food — as extravagances to be resisted through self-denial. Starved for love as well as physical nourishment, the couple's only hope for survival lies with Elsie, their maid, and her warm-hearted generosity. Winner of the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, England's oldest literary award, Riceyman Steps weaves an atmospheric re-creation of London's harsh post-World War I mood. Its powerful exploration of sexual hunger and repression, written simply and with a deceptively light ironic tone, offers a compelling story of alienation, thwarted passion, and obsession.
British novelist Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) is best known for his series of novels set in the "Five Towns," a thinly fictionalized version of the Potteries, the Staffordshire region where he grew up. He was also a playwright and journalist, and during World War I he served as Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information.
Reviews
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La condición del producto y rapidez del envío
El producto llegó muy rápido y sin problemas..estoy muy contento
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a cautionary tale
A wonderful story about late life marriage - not a pretty tale but compelling and even a bit humorous. Though it probably woukld be classified as tragedy-
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What a treasure!
I nearly didn't download this, but I have just "discovered" Arnold Bennett recently and thought " why not?" I was charmed, enchanted, really worried about the characters. I wanted to finish the book to see what happened, but I was scared how it might end. I was sorry to finish it because it was such a good story, well-told, not glamorous, but very real. You could really empathise with each character - they were so finely drawn. Will be reading more Bennett for sure.
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sad but captivating
This is my first experience with with Arnold Bennett’s work. I found his ability to describe the intimate and private thoughts and inner feelings of his characters captivating. Can’t wait to immerse myself in more!
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One of my favourite writers anyway he always takes understated and boring lives ...
One of my favourite writers anyway he always takes understated and boring lives and people and in a gentle unobtrusive way makes them interesting so at the end you sit back and feel your life might be unstarry but would be interesting if unravelled in detail. Highly recommend 'The Card' and 'Old Wives Tale'