Hilda Lessways

I ended up feeling much the same way about Hilda Lessways as I did of Edwin Clayhanger. Both are hard to like, it is not really clear if she is a highly intelligent and perceptive woman caught in a time with no appreciation of her skills or just a wishy-washy mess. She spends most of her time swerving from one impulsive action to another. Since I already know her fate from Clayhanger, it is hard to watch her stumble her way through disasters and know it won't go well. I think this is more of the "Life is Nasty, Brutish, and Short" Arnold Bennett that I was expecting. Yet, I did stick it out and I've started the third book in the series so who is the fool here?

This book runs parallel with Clayhanger, so it was a little strange knowing sort of what was going to happen, and having already read parts of it from Clayhanger's point of view. But it was still interesting and surprising seeing what Hilda is up to when she's 'offstage' in that book. She's a strange character, and I found this book a bit more concise than Clayhanger.

"In HILDA LESSWAYS (the second volume of the trilogy that begins with CLAYHANGER and ends with THESE TWAIN) Bennett relates the early life of Hilda Lessways, before her marriage to Edwin Clayhanger. Her involvement with the enigmatic, self-made man, George Cannon, and his enterprises takes her from the offices of an embryo newspaper in the Five Towns to a venture into the guesthouse business in Brighton."

"As in CLAYHANGER Bennett, in Walter Allen's words, `follows the grain of life'. Hilda, in her guilt at having failed her mother, in her relationship with Cannon, in her growing fascination for young Clayhanger, in the reality of her hopes and tragedies, is one of Bennett's most living heroines."