Arnold Bennett - The Card

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Brilliantly enjoyable 

 

It is many years since I first read The Card and it’s still as brilliantly enjoyable now. If ever there was a book which contradicted Mark Twain’s definition of a classic as something everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read, this should be it.

First published in 1911, this is the story of Denry Machin a young man of humble origins in the Five Towns, Arnold Bennett’s fictionalised version of The Potteries in Staffordshire. Denry’s tale is told in a series of chapters from his life in which he may suffer temporary setback, but by a combination of nous, bravado and occasional low cunning he continues to rise in wealth and stature and to become “a card” – a most desirable soubriquet denoting a man of character and wit.

It’s a delight. Bennett’s style is extremely readable and has a wonderfully dry, slightly ironic wit to it which had me smiling regularly and sometimes laughing out loud. Denry’s antics are very amusing (although I did need to grit my teeth a little at one or two of them, which do seem rather unacceptably underhand nowadays). The portraits of the other characters and of provincial society at the time are very well done, too, often in a few exceptionally well-written lines.

In short, I loved The Card. It’s a great read from a very fine, perceptive and very funny writer. Warmly recommended.