Description
Book SynopsisYou might find it hard to imagine that those ageing spinsters living quietly in small English towns ever led lives of passion or hardship, that they ever possessed beauty or romantic ideals. This title tells the story of two such old wives, sisters Constance and Sophia, from youth, through marriage, heartbreak, triumphs and disasters, to old age.
Trade ReviewBennett's masterpiece... There are few more moving accounts of the effects of time, the passage of history and the slow encroachment of age than this remarkable, epic novel * Guardian *
It's not just a wonderful story; it's also an expressionist masterpiece, almost surreal at times. It's also an amazing feat of empathy... It's also very intimate, and highly emotional. In fact, it's the perfect novel -- Deborah Moggach * Independent *
Arguably the finest novel written by an Englishman in the 20th century * Daily Telegraph *
Arnold Bennett did write one indisputable masterpiece,
The Old Wives' Tale, and that is where I recommend you start... Each time I'm in the midst of reading it, I think it the best novel ever written -- Wendy Lesser * New York Times *
For Bennett...compassion is not soggy. It involves understanding. The core of his writing is psychological truth, clinically observed, crisply reported * Sunday Times *
