These Twain

View other editions of These Twain.
View books by Arnold Bennett.

An intriguing trilogy - Rated
I'm so glad I have read all three books of the Clayhanger trilogy. In the first one called Clayhanger I was astonished when Arnold Bennett let Edwin get heartbroken and just had to stop reading at the end of that section, in order to read the second book, Hilda Lessways, to try and understand more of Hilda's unusual (for those days) character, and then I could easily finish the first book. By then, I was completely intrigued and had to find out how Edwin and Hilda survived, and so the last book These Twain beautifully completed their story; I love Bennett's insightful portrayal of marriage.

From the back cover of this novel... - Rated
"The final volume in the Clayhanger trilogy, following CLAY-HANGER and HILDA LESSWAYS. In many ways this is the most accomplished of the three novels, for Bennett, drawing together the threads of his trilogy, presents already-established personalities in confrontation. Hilda is now married to Edwin Clay-Hanger and the two, with Hilda's son by her disastrous `marriage' to George Cannon, are living in Bursley. As they cope with immediate tensions and with old wounds they are forced continually to reassess their relationship. Bennett is at his best here, recreating a society and its characters -- Auntie Hamps and Tertius Ingpen among them -- and achieving a remarkably subtle and biting portrait of a marriage."