Showing 1-3 out of 3 reviews.

• The Old Wives Tale follows two sisters, Constance and Sophia as they age. It begins in the 1860s when the girls are teens. One sister stays home in the middle of England, while the other is in Paris. Their lives are affected by the changes due to the industrial revolution.This book reminded me a lot of Dreiser. I think Bennett would be considered a realist. Also, I liked the preface because Bennett explains the life experience that gave him the idea for the book.

  4.00 out of 5

  strandbooks

• A story of two sisters aptly titled Old Wives' Tale because it tells the ordinary progression of time till we die of these two English women. The author wrote in the fashion of Balzac. Arnold Bennett captured the life of a women well. The book also reflects a time when transportation and commerce is changing. This 600 plus page book reads fast because it is enjoyable.

  out of 5

  Kristelh

• First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters--shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia--over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

  out of 5

  edella

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