THE greatest obstacle to the permanence of Arnold
Bennett's literary reputation is the mass of commonplace
production which threatens to distract attention from his
few masterpieces. One may pass an idle hour pleasantly
enough with what Bennett calls 'fantasies,' 'frolics,'
'melodramas,' 'idyllic diversions' (and some of the books
he calls novels really belong to the same class), but
what has the student of literature to do with such pre-
tentious pot-boilers ( Bennett applied the word indis-
criminately to his own work and George Meredith's
novels) as 'How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day,'
'The Reasonable Life,' 'Friendship and Happiness,' 'The
Married Life,' etc., which the author classed under
'Belles-Lettres,' and which his publishers (not, one hopes,
himself) heralded as containing "big, strong, vital, think-
ing"? The danger is that this over-advertised deadweight
of platitudes will overwhelm Bennett's reputation as a
conscientious artist and hinder appreciation of his really
significant work. To those who are acquainted with both
it must be an astonishment that the author of these
cheap popular essays should also be the novelist of 'The
Old Wives' Tale' and the 'Clayhanger' trilogy.

The key to the enigma is supplied by Arnold Bennett
himself. In 'The Truth about an Author,' originally pub-
lished anonymously in the columns of the 'Academy,'

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