The Grim Smile Of The Five Towns
The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907) is the second major collection of stories written by Arnold Bennett. (The first is Tales Of The Five Towns, 1905, available at Librivox.).The five towns of the title are the conurbation of Stoke-on-Trent in which much of the writer's best work is set. Later [than initial] critics have been kinder to the collection's key story, with Margaret Drabble calling "Simon Fuge"... one of the greatest short stories in the English language", and John Wain remarking that... "it says as much as a novel, it says easily as much as a novel of a hundred thousand words could say on this theme" and naming it... "the best thing that Arnold Bennett ever did." The stories exhibit Bennett's usual dry wit and belie the word "grim" in the title. - Summary by David Wales
Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Single Author Collections
Language: English
Section | Chapter | Reader | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Play 01 | The Lion's Share | David Wales |
00:32:00 |
Play 02 | Baby's Bath | David Wales |
00:27:56 |
Play 03 | The Silent Brothers | David Wales |
00:35:07 |
Play 04 | The Nineteenth Hat | David Wales |
00:18:06 |
Play 05 | Vera's First Christmas Adventure | David Wales |
00:26:45 |
Play 06 | The Murder Of The Mandarin | David Wales |
00:27:58 |
Play 07 | Vera's Second Christmas Adventure | David Wales |
00:27:36 |
Play 08 | The Burglary | David Wales |
00:27:09 |
Play 09 | News Of The Engagement | David Wales |
00:12:08 |
Play 10 | Beginning The New Year | David Wales |
00:18:11 |
Play 11 | From One Generation To Another | David Wales |
00:25:50 |
Play 12 | The Death Of Simon Fuge, Part 1 | David Wales |
00:42:44 |
Play 13 | The Death Of Simon Fuge, Part 2 | David Wales |
00:27:56 |
Play 14 | The Death Of Simon Fuge, Part 3 | David Wales |
00:58:37 |
Play 15 | In A New Bottle | David Wales |
00:11:27 |