The Old Wives' Tale is a novel by Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...

, first published in 1908. It deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, following their stories from their youth, working in their mother's draper's shop, into old age. It is generally regarded as one of Bennett's finest works. It covers a period of about 70 years from roughly 1840 to 1905, and is set in Burslem

Burslem

The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...

 and Paris.

Bennett was initially inspired to write the book by a chance encounter in a Parisian restaurant. In the introduction to the book, he says
and
Bennett also found inspiration in Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....

´s novel "Une Vie". http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2006/11/the_old_wives_t.html

Plot details

The book is broken up into four parts. The first section, "Mrs Baines" details the adolescence of both Sophia and Constance, and their life in their father's shop and house (a combined property)http://www.thepotteries.org/listed/19ab.html. The father is ill and bedridden, and the main adult in their life is Mrs Baines, their mother.

By the end of the first book, Sophia (whose name reflects her sophistication, as opposed to the constant Constance) has eloped

Elope

To elope, most literally, merely means to run away with a girl and to not come back to the point of origination. More specifically, elopement is often used to refer to a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving hurried flight away from one's place of residence together...

 with a travelling salesman. Constance meanwhile marries Mr Povey, who works in the shop.

The second part, "Constance", details the life of Constance from that point forward up until the time she is reunited with her sister in old age. Her life, although outwardly prosaic, is nevertheless filled with personal incident, including the death of her husband, Mr Povey, and her concerns about the character and behaviour of her son.

The third part, "Sophia", carries forward the story of what happened to Sophia after her elopement. Abandoned by her husband in Paris, Sophia eventually becomes the owner of a successful pensione

Pension (lodging)

A pensione is a family-owned guest house or boarding house. This term is typically used in Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, other Continental European countries, in areas of North Africa and the Middle East that formerly had large European expatriate populations, and in some parts of South America...

.

The final part, "What Life Is", details how the two sisters are eventually reunited. Sophia returns to England and the house of her childhood, where Constance still lives.

Details and Legacy

In 1998, the Modern Library

Modern Library

The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...

 ranked The Old Wives' Tale #87 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

A facsimile edition of the manuscript has been published, which is a testament to Bennett's calligraphic skills. The original manuscript is in the Lilly Library

Lilly Library

The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is a large rare book and manuscript library in the United States.-History:...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

It was adapted into a 1921 film The Old Wives' Tale

The Old Wives' Tale (film)

The Old Wives' Tale is a 1921 British drama film directed by Denison Clift and starring Fay Compton, Florence Turner and Henry Victor. It is based on the 1908 novel The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett.-Cast:* Fay Compton - Sophie Barnes...

starring Fay Compton

Fay Compton

Fay Compton was an English actress from a notable acting lineage; her father was actor/manager Edward Compton; her mother, Virginia Bateman, was a distinguished member of the profession, as were her sister, the actress Viola Compton, and her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather was the 19th-century...

. It was made into a TV series by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1988 as Sophia and Constance

Sophia and Constance

Sophia and Constance is a British drama television series which originally aired on the BBC in six episodes between 13 April and 18 May 1988. It was an adaptation of the 1908 novel The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett which follows the lives of two sisters through the Victorian era. It starred...

.

External links

• The Old Wives' Tale, audio book at Librivox