The Ghost by Arnold Bennett, Fiction, Literary de Arnold Bennett

The Ghost by Arnold Bennett, Fiction, Literary

Arnold Bennett

"Lord Clarenceux had met her then," said Sir Cyril, speaking of Rosetta Rosa, the opera's soprano with the golden throat. I was drawn to the woman, and listened eagerly. "She merely said she would think it over. She wouldn't sign a contract. After a week's negotiation, I was compelled to own myself beaten. Nothing happened for a time. She sang in Paris and America, and took her proper place as the first soprano in the world." Later, I spoke to her myself. "He is dead now," she told me. "You have heard -- everyone knows -- that I was once engaged to Lord Clarenceux. He was a friend. He loved me -- he died --" "Lord Clarenceux must have been a great man," I said. "That is exactly what he was. I wish I could describe him to you, but I cannot. He was immensely rich . . . he fell in love with me, and offered me his hand. I declined -- I was afraid of him. He said he would shoot himself. And he would have done it; so I accepted. I should have ended by loving him. Lord Clarenceux died. And I am alone. I was terribly lonely after his death. I missed his jealousy . . ."

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Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867 - 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda and films. In 1889 Bennett won a literary competition run by the magazine Tit-Bits and was encouraged to take up journalism full-time. In 1894 he became assistant editor of the magazine Woman. He noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial that was bought by the syndicate for 75 pounds (equivalent to £10,000 in 2016). He then wrote another. This became The Grand Babylon Hotel. Just over four years later his novel A Man from the North was published to critical acclaim and he became editor of the magazine. In 1900 Bennett gave up the editorship of Woman and dedicated himself to writing full-time. However, he continued to write for newspapers and magazines while finding success in his career as a novelist. In 1926, at the suggestion of Lord Beaverbrook, he began writing an influential weekly article on books for the London newspaper the Evening Standard. One of Bennett's most popular non-fiction works was the self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. His diaries have yet to be published in full, but extracts from them have often been quoted in the British press.