Editing Arnold Bennett (section)

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Arnold Bennett was born on 27 May 1867 in [[Hanley, Staffordshire]], now part of [[Stoke-on-Trent]] but then a separate town.<ref>Pound, p. 20; and Swinnerton (1950), p. 9</ref><ref name=oglb>Hahn, Daniel, and Nicholas Robins. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198614609.001.0001/acref-9780198614609-e-2697 "Stoke-on-Trent"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312092942/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198614609.001.0001/acref-9780198614609-e-2697 |date=12 March 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland'', Oxford University Press, 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2020 {{subscription required}}.</ref> He was the eldest child of the three sons and three daughters{{refn|Three other children died in infancy.<ref name=odnb/>|group=n}} of Enoch Bennett (1843–1902) and his wife Sarah Ann, ''née'' Longson (1840–1914). Enoch Bennett's early career had been one of mixed fortunes: after an unsuccessful attempt to run a business making and selling pottery, he set up as a [[draper]] and pawnbroker in 1866. Four years later, Enoch's father died, leaving him some money with which he [[articled clerk|articled]] himself to a local law firm; in 1876, he qualified as a [[solicitor]].<ref name=odnb>Lucas, John. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30708 "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931), writer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914000605/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30708 |date=14 September 2019 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 May 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> The Bennetts were staunch [[Wesleyan Church|Wesleyans]], musical, cultured and sociable. Enoch Bennett had an authoritarian side, but it was a happy household,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Panter |first=Matthew |date=2 June 2023 |title=Retired Powys headteacher wins international book prize |pages= |work=Shropshire Star |url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/authors/2023/06/02/retired-powys-headteacher-wins-international-book-prize/ |access-date=5 June 2023}}</ref> although a mobile one: as Enoch's success as a solicitor increased, the family moved, within the space of five years in the late 1870s and early 1880s, to four different houses in Hanley and the neighbouring [[Burslem]].<ref name=oglb/>

From 1877 to 1882, Bennett's schooling was at the [[Wedgwood Institute]], Burslem, followed by a year at a grammar school in [[Newcastle-under-Lyme]]. He was good at Latin and better at French;<ref>Swinnerton (1950), p. 10.</ref> he had an inspirational headmaster who gave him a love for French literature and the French language that lasted all his life.<ref>Drabble, p. 38.</ref> He did well academically and passed [[Cambridge University]] examinations that could have led to an [[Oxbridge]] education, but his father had other plans. In 1883, aged 16, Bennett left school and began work – unpaid – in his father's office. He divided his time between uncongenial jobs, such as rent collecting, during the day, and studying for examinations in the evening. He began writing in a modest way, contributing light pieces to the local newspaper.<ref name=odnb/> He became adept in [[Pitman's shorthand]], a skill much sought after in commercial offices,<ref>Pound, p. 68</ref> and on the strength of that he secured a post as a clerk at a firm of solicitors in [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]], London.<ref>Pound, p. 71.</ref> In March 1889, aged 21, he left for London and never returned to live in his native county.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Drabble, p. 45.</ref>

===First years in London===
[[File:Western side of Lincoln's Inn Fields.jpg|thumb|alt=urban streetscape with trees and grassed area to one side and terraced 18th century buildings on the other|upright=1|Lincoln's Inn Fields in 2018]]
In the solicitors' office in London, Bennett became friendly with a young colleague, John Eland, who had a passion for books. Eland's friendship helped alleviate Bennett's innate shyness, which was exacerbated by a lifelong stammer.<ref name=odnb/>{{refn|[[Somerset Maugham]], a friend of Bennett and a fellow-stammerer, observed, "It was painful to watch the struggle he sometimes had to get the words out. It was torture to him. Few realised the exhaustion it caused him to speak. What to most men is as easy as breathing was to him a constant strain.&nbsp;... Few knew the distressing sense it gave rise to of a bar to complete contact with other men. It may be that except for the stammer which forced him to introspection, Arnold would never have become a writer".<ref>Maugham, p. 192</ref>|group=n}} Together, they explored the world of literature. Among the writers who impressed and influenced Bennett were [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]], [[Émile Zola]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], [[Guy de Maupassant]], [[Gustave Flaubert]] and [[Ivan Turgenev]].<ref>Young, p. 8</ref> He continued his own writing, and won a prize of twenty [[guineas]] from ''[[Tit-Bits]]'' in 1893 for his story 'The Artist's Model'; another short story, 'A Letter Home', was submitted successfully to ''[[The Yellow Book]]'', where it featured in 1895 alongside contributions from [[Henry James]] and other well-known writers.<ref>Young, p. 9</ref>

In 1894 Bennett resigned from the law firm and became assistant editor of the magazine ''Woman''. The salary, £150 a year, was £50 less than he was earning as a clerk,{{refn|£150 in 1894 is approximately {{Inflation|UK|150|1894|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}, according to calculations based on [[Consumer Price Index (United Kingdom)|Consumer Price Index]] measure of inflation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Clark|first1=Gregory|title=The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)|url=https://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/|access-date=4 June 2020|publisher=MeasuringWorth|date=2020|archive-date=17 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171217054349/https://measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=n}} but the post left him much more free time to write his first novel. For the magazine he wrote under a range of female pen-names such as "Barbara" and "Cecile". As his biographer [[Margaret Drabble]] puts it:
{{blockindent|He did a bit of everything. He learned about recipes and [[layette]]s, about making-up, making-ready and running-round. He reviewed plays and books&nbsp;... He acquainted himself with hundreds of subjects that would never have come his way otherwise&nbsp;... the domestic column told one "How to train a Cook", "How to keep parsley fresh", "How to make money at home", "How to bath the baby (Part One)". The knowledge was not wasted, for Bennett is one of the few novelists who can write with sympathy and detail about the domestic preoccupations of women.<ref>Drabble, p. 56</ref>|}}
The informal office life of the magazine suited Bennett, not least because it brought him into lively female company, and he began to be a little more relaxed with young women.<ref>Drabble, p. 57</ref> He continued work on his novel and wrote short stories and articles. He was modest about his literary talent: he wrote to a friend, "I have no inward assurance that I could ever do anything more than mediocre viewed strictly as art – very mediocre", but he knew he could "turn out things which would be read with zest, & about which the man in the street would say to friends 'Have you read so & so in the ''What-is-it''?{{'}}"<ref>Hepburn (2013), p. 11</ref> He was happy to write for popular journals like ''Hearth and Home'' or for the highbrow ''[[The Academy (periodical)|The Academy]]''.<ref>Drabble, p. 59</ref>

His debut novel, ''A Man from the North'', completed in 1896, was published two years later, by [[John Lane (publisher)|John Lane]], whose reader, [[John Buchan]], recommended it for publication.<ref>Drabble, p. 66</ref> It elicited a letter of praise from [[Joseph Conrad]] and was well and widely reviewed, but Bennett's profits from the sale of the book were less than the cost of having it typed.<ref>Young, p. 9; and Drabble, p. 78</ref>

In 1896 Bennett was promoted to be editor of ''Woman''; by then he had set his sights on a career as a full-time author, but he served as editor for four years.<ref name=odnb/> During that time he wrote two popular books, described by the critic [[John Lucas (poet)|John Lucas]] as "[[pot-boilers]]": ''Journalism for Women'' (1898) and ''Polite Farces for the Drawing Room'' (1899). He also began work on a second novel, ''[[Anna of the Five Towns]]'', the five towns being Bennett's lightly fictionalised version of the [[Staffordshire Potteries]], where he grew up.<ref name=ocel>Birch, Dinah (ed).  [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-720. "Bennett, Arnold"], ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2009 {{subscription required}}</ref>

===Freelance; Paris===
In 1900 Bennett resigned his post at ''Woman'', and left London to set up house at Trinity Hall Farm, near the village of [[Hockliffe]] in Bedfordshire, where he made a home not only for himself but for his parents and younger sister. He completed ''Anna of the Five Towns'' in 1901; it was published the following year, as was its successor, ''[[The Grand Babylon Hotel]]''. The latter, an extravagant story of crime in high society, sold 50,000 copies in hardback and was almost immediately translated into four languages.<ref>Carey, p. 153</ref> By this stage he was confident enough in his abilities to tell a friend:
{{blockindent|Although I am 33 & I have not made a name, I infallibly know that I shall make a name, & that soon. But I should like to be a legend. I think I have settled in my own mind that my work will never be better than third rate, judged by the high standards, but I shall be cunning enough to make it impose on my contemporaries.<ref>Bennett and Hepburn, p. 151</ref>|}}

[[File:26 rue d'Aumale Paris.jpg|thumb|left|alt=exterior of 19th-century Parisian appartement block|upright|Rue d'Aumale, Bennett's second address in Paris]]
In January 1902 Enoch Bennett died, after a decline into dementia.<ref>Drabble, pp. 88–89</ref> His widow chose to move back to Burslem, and Bennett's sister married shortly afterwards. With no dependants, Bennett − always a devotee of French culture<ref name=odnb/> − decided to move to Paris; he took up residence there in March 1903.<ref name="Drabble, p. 104">Pound, p. 127</ref> Biographers have speculated on his precise reasons for doing so.  Drabble suggests that perhaps "he was hoping for some kind of liberation. He was thirty-five and unmarried";<ref name="Drabble, p. 104"/> Lucas writes that it was almost certainly Bennett's desire to be recognised as a serious artist that prompted his move;<ref name=odnb/> according to his friend and colleague [[Frank Swinnerton]], Bennett was following in the footsteps of George Moore by going to live in "the home of modern realism";<ref name=s14>Swinnerton (1950), p. 14</ref> in the view of the biographer [[Reginald Pound]] it was "to begin his career as a man of the world".<ref name="Drabble, p. 104"/> The [[9th arrondissement of Paris]] was Bennett's home for the next five years, first in the rue de Calais, near the [[Place Pigalle]], and then the more upmarket rue d'Aumale.<ref>Drabble, pp. 109 and 150; and Pound, p. 156</ref>

Life in Paris evidently helped Bennett overcome much of his remaining shyness with women.<ref>Drabble, pp. 105–106</ref> His journals for his early months in Paris mention a young woman identified as "C" or "Chichi", who was a [[chorus girl]];<ref>Bennett (1954), pp. 71–72, 76, 81 and 84–86</ref> the journals – or at least the cautiously selected extracts published since his death<ref name=lhd/> – do not record the precise nature of the relationship, but the two spent a considerable amount of time together.<ref>Pound, pp. 128–129; and Drabble, pp. 10, and 105–106</ref>

In a restaurant where he dined frequently a trivial incident in 1903 gave Bennett the germ of an idea for the novel generally regarded as his masterpiece.<ref name=s14/><ref>Sutherland, John. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-2180 "Old Wives' Tale, The"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312092950/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-2180 |date=12 March 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English'', Oxford University Press, 1996. Retrieved 31 May 2020 {{subscription required}}</ref> A grotesque old woman came in and caused a fuss; the beautiful young waitress laughed at her, and Bennett was struck by the thought that the old woman had once been as young and lovely as the waitress.<ref>Bennett (1954), pp. 76–77</ref> From this grew the story of two contrasting sisters in ''[[The Old Wives' Tale]]''.<ref>Pound, pp. 132–133</ref> He did not begin work on that novel until 1907, before which he wrote ten others, some "sadly undistinguished", in the view of his biographer Kenneth Young.<ref>Young, p. 10</ref> Throughout his career, Bennett interspersed his best novels with some that his biographers and others have labelled pot-boilers.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Drabble, p. 263; Young, p. 10; and Hepburn (2013), p. 37</ref>

===Marriage; Fontainebleau and US visit===
[[File:Picture of Arnold Bennett.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Head and torso of standing middle-aged white man, in a dark suit, with full head of wavy dark hair, looking to the side. He has a neat, medium-sized moustache|Bennett, {{Circa|1910}}]]
In 1905 Bennett became engaged to Eleanor Green, a member of an eccentric and capricious American family living in Paris, but at the last moment, after the wedding invitations had been sent out, she broke off the engagement and almost immediately married a fellow American.<ref>Pound, p. 163; and Drabble, p. 129</ref> Drabble comments that Bennett was well rid of her, but it was a painful episode in his life.<ref>Drabble, p. 133</ref> In early 1907 he met Marguerite Soulié (1874–1960), who soon became first a friend and then a lover.<ref>Drabble, p. 137</ref> In May he was taken ill with a severe gastric complaint, and Marguerite moved into his flat to look after him. They became still closer, and in July 1907, shortly after his fortieth birthday, they were married at the [[Mairie]] of the 9th arrondissement.<ref>Drabble, p. 140</ref> The marriage was childless.<ref name=dnb>Swinnerton, Frank. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-30708 "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603143800/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-30708 |date=3 June 2018 }}, ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1949. Retrieved 1 June 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Early in 1908 the couple moved from the rue d'Aumale to the Villa des Néfliers in [[Avon, Seine-et-Marne|Fontainebleau-Avon]], about 40 miles (64&nbsp;km) south-east of Paris.<ref>Drabble, p. 250</ref>{{refn|"Néfliers" translates into English as "[[medlar]] trees".<ref>Corréard ''et al'', p. 1433</ref> In Bennett's time the house was called "Villa ''des'' Néfliers",<ref>Pound, pp. 187, 209 and 220</ref> but is evidently now the "Villa ''les'' Néfliers".<ref name=about>[https://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/about-the-society/ "About the Society"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325060107/http://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk/about-the-society/ |date=25 March 2019 }}, Arnold Bennett Society. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref><ref name=ts>[http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/2013/11/arnold-bennett-in-avon-seine-et-marne.html "Arnold Bennett in Avon, Seine-et-Marne"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305040350/http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/2013/11/arnold-bennett-in-avon-seine-et-marne.html |date=5 March 2018 }}, Dr Tony Shaw. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref>|group=n}}

Lucas comments that the best of the novels written while in France – ''Whom God Hath Joined'' (1906), ''The Old Wives' Tale'' (1908), and ''[[Clayhanger]]'' (1910) – "justly established Bennett as a major exponent of realistic fiction".<ref name=odnb/> In addition to these, Bennett published lighter novels such as ''[[The Card]]'' (1911). His output of literary journalism included articles for [[T. P. O'Connor]]'s ''[[T. P.'s Weekly]]'' and the left-wing ''[[The New Age]]''; his pieces for the latter, published under a pen-name, were concise literary essays aimed at "the general cultivated reader",<ref name=odnb/> a form taken up by a later generation of writers including [[J. B. Priestley]] and [[V. S. Pritchett]].<ref name=odnb/>

In 1911 Bennett made a financially rewarding visit to the US, which he later recorded in his 1912 book ''[[Those United States]]''. Crossing the Atlantic aboard the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'', he visited not only New York and Boston but also Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington and Philadelphia in a tour that was described by US publisher [[George H. Doran Company|George Doran]] as "one of continuous triumph":<ref>Pound, p. 228)</ref> in the first three days of his stay in New York he was interviewed 26 times by journalists.<ref>Donovan, p. 103</ref> While rival [[E.P. Dutton]] had secured rights to such Bennett novels as ''Hilda Lessways'' and ''the Card'' (retitled ''Denry the Audacious''), Doran, who travelled everywhere with Bennett while in America, was the publisher of Bennett's wildly successful 'pocket philosophies' ''[[How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day]]'' and ''Mental Efficiency.'' Of these books the influential critic [[Willard Huntington Wright]] wrote that Bennett had "turned preacher and a jolly good preacher he is".<ref>Donovan, p. 100</ref> While in the US Bennett also sold the serial rights of his forthcoming novel, ''The Price of Love'' (1913–14), to ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harpers]]'' for £2,000, eight essays to ''[[Metropolitan Magazine (New York City)|Metropolitan]]'' magazine for a total of  £1,200, and the American rights of a successor to ''Clayhanger'' for £3,000.<ref name=odnb/>

During his ten years in France he had gone from a moderately well-known writer enjoying modest sales to outstanding success. Swinnerton comments that in addition to his large sales, Bennett's critical prestige was at its zenith.<ref name="dnb" />

===Return to England===
[[File:Bennett-Knoblock-Milestones-1912.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Scene from Act 2 of the 1912 play ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]'', by Bennett and [[Edward Knoblauch]]|alt= stage scene in 1885 costumes with three women and two men: a young woman earnestly addresses her stern father]]
In 1912, after an extended stay at the Hotel Californie in Cannes,<ref>Drabble, p. 188</ref> during which time he wrote ''The Regent'', a light-hearted sequel to ''The Card'', Bennett and his wife moved from France to England. Initially they lived in [[Putney]], but "determined to become an English country landowner",<ref>Donovan, p. 114</ref> he bought [[Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken|Comarques]], an early-18th-century country house at [[Thorpe-le-Soken]], Essex, and moved there in February 1913.<ref>Drabble, p. 192</ref> Among his early concerns, once back in England, was to succeed as a playwright. He had dabbled previously but his inexperience showed. ''[[The Times]]'' thought his 1911 comedy ''The Honeymoon'', staged in the [[West End theatre|West End]] with a starry cast,{{refn|The cast included [[Dion Boucicault Jr.|Dion Boucicault]], [[W. Graham Brown]], [[Dennis Eadie]], [[Basil Hallam]], [[Kate Serjeantson]] and [[Marie Tempest]].<ref name=hon/>|group=n}} had "one of the most amusing first acts we have ever seen", but fell flat in the other two acts.<ref name=hon>"Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 7 October 1911, p. 8</ref> In the same year Bennett met the playwright [[Edward Knoblauch]] (later Knoblock) and they collaborated on ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]'', the story of the generations of a family seen in 1860, 1885 and 1912. The combination of Bennett's narrative gift and Knoblauch's practical experience proved a success.<ref name=da>"Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291</ref> The play was strongly cast,{{refn|The cast included [[Lionel Atwill]], [[Gladys Cooper]], [[Dennis Eadie]], [[Mary Jerrold]], [[Owen Nares]] and [[Haidee Wright]].<ref>"Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 6 March 1912</ref>|group=n}} received highly favourable notices,<ref>"Bennett-Knoblauch Play a Big Success", ''The New York Times'', 6 March 1912, p. 4;  "Royalty Theatre", ''The Times'', 6 March 1912; "Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 9 March 1912, p. 291; Milne, A. A. "At the Play", ''Punch'', 27 March 1912, p. 238; and "Plays of the Month", ''The English Review'', April 1912, pp. 155–157</ref> ran for more than 600 performances in London and over 200 in New York,<ref>Gaye, p. 1535; and [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/milestones-7497 "Milestones"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326123535/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/milestones-7497 |date=26 March 2020 }}, Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 1 June 2020</ref> and made Bennett a great deal of money.<ref name=odnb/> His next play, ''[[The Great Adventure (play)|The Great Adventure]]'' (1913), a stage version of his novel ''Buried Alive'' (1908), was similarly successful.<ref name=Wearing327>Wearing, p. 327</ref>

Bennett's attitude to the [[First World War]] was that British politicians had been at fault in failing to prevent it, but that once it had become inevitable it was right that Britain should join its allies against the Germans.<ref>Pound, p. 248</ref> He concentrated his attention on journalism, aiming to inform and encourage the public in Britain and allied and neutral countries. He served on official and unofficial committees, and in 1915 he was invited to visit France to see conditions at the front and write about them for readers at home. The collected impressions appeared in a book called ''Over There'' (1915).<ref name=dnb/> He was still writing novels, however: ''These Twain'', the third in his Clayhanger trilogy, was published in 1916<ref>Drabble, p 210</ref> and in 1917 he completed a sequel, ''The Roll Call'', which ends with its hero, George Cannon, enlisting in the army. Wartime London was the setting for Bennett's ''The Pretty Lady'' (1918), about a high-class French ''[[Cocotte (prostitute)|cocotte]]'': although well reviewed, because of its subject-matter the novel provoked "a Hades of a row" and some booksellers refused to sell it.<ref>Donovan, p. 136</ref>

When [[Lord Beaverbrook]] became [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Minister of Information]] in February 1918 he appointed Bennett to take charge of propaganda in France.<ref name="dnb" /> Beaverbrook fell ill in October 1918 and made Bennett director of propaganda, in charge of the whole ministry for the last weeks of the war.<ref>"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 2 October 1918, p. 11; and Pound, pp. 276–277</ref> At the end of 1918 Bennett was offered, but declined, a [[Commander (order)#United Kingdom|knighthood]] in the new [[Order of the British Empire]] instituted by [[George V]].<ref name="p279">Pound, p. 279</ref> The offer was renewed some time later, and again Bennett refused it. One of his closest associates at the time suspected that he was privately hoping for the more prestigious [[Order of Merit]].<ref name="p279" />

As the war was ending, Bennett returned to his theatrical interests, although not primarily as a playwright. In November 1918 he became chairman, with [[Nigel Playfair]] as managing director, of the [[Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith]].<ref>"Mr Arnold Bennett's Theatre", ''The Times'', 15 November 1819, p. 3</ref> Among their productions were ''[[Abraham Lincoln (play)|Abraham Lincoln]]'' by [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater]], and ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', which, in Swinnerton's phrase, "caught different moods of the post-war spirit",<ref name=dnb/> and ran for 466 and 1,463 performances respectively.<ref>Gaye, p. 1528</ref>

===Last years===
[[File:Arnold Bennett and H.G. Wells (5026571804).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Exterior of block of luxury flats with brown plaques on either side of the entrance|[[Chiltern Court, Baker Street|Chiltern Court]] – Bennett's last home, with plaques commemorating him and [[H. G. Wells|H.{{space}}G.{{space}}Wells]]]]
[[File:Arnold Bennett, Burslem Cemetery.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Funerary stone monument consisting of a pedestal stack of square blocks, each narrower than the one below it, upon which rests a tall, narrow [[cuboid]] with inscriptions, above which is a square capitol topped with a carved urn|Memorial in [[Burslem#Burslem cemetery|Burslem Cemetery]]{{refn|The inscription gives the date of his death as 29 March 1931, although in fact he died at 8.50 p.m. on 27 March.<ref name=p367/>|group=n}}]]
In 1921 Bennett and his wife [[legally separated]]. They had been drifting apart for some years and Marguerite had taken up with Pierre Legros, a young French lecturer.<ref>Drabble, pp. 252 and 257</ref> Bennett sold Comarques and lived in London for the rest of his life, first in a flat near [[Bond Street]] in the [[West End of London|West End]], on which he had taken a lease during the war.<ref>Drabble, p. 266</ref> For much of the 1920s he was widely known to be the highest-paid literary journalist in England, contributing a weekly column to Beaverbrook's ''[[Evening Standard]]'' under the title 'Books and Persons'; according to [[Frank Swinnerton]], these articles were "extraordinarily successful and influential ... and made a number of new reputations".<ref>Swinnerton (1978), p. 54</ref>{{refn|The columns for ''The Evening Standard'' are collected in ''Arnold Bennett: The Evening Standard Years – "Books and Persons" 1926–1931'', published in 1974.<ref>Bennett (1974), title page</ref>|group=n}} By the end of his career, Bennett had contributed to more than 100 newspapers, magazines and other publications.<ref>Howarth, p. 2</ref> He continued to write novels and plays as assiduously as before the war.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=dnb/>

Swinnerton writes, "Endless social engagements; inexhaustible patronage of musicians, actors, poets, and painters; the maximum of benevolence to friends and strangers alike, marked the last ten years of his life".<ref name=dnb/> [[Hugh Walpole]],<ref>Hart-Davis, pp. 88, 89, 102–103, 149–150, 169 and 211</ref> [[James Agate]]<ref>Agate, p. 166</ref> and [[Osbert Sitwell]] were among those who testified to Bennett's generosity. Sitwell recalled a letter Bennett wrote in the 1920s:
{{blockindent|I find I am richer this year than last; so I enclose a cheque for 500 pounds for you to distribute among young writers and artists and musicians who may need the money. You will know, better than I do, who they are. But I must make one condition, that you do not reveal that the money has come from me, or tell anyone about it.<ref>''Quoted'' in Agate, p. 166</ref>{{refn|Sitwell recorded that Bennett's practice of anonymous philanthropy was continued by the latter's protégé [[Hugh Walpole]].<ref>Hart-Davis, pp. 325–326</ref>|group=n}}|}}
In 1922 Bennett met and fell in love with an actress, Dorothy Cheston (1891–1977). Together they set up home in [[Cadogan Square]], where they stayed until moving in 1930 to [[Chiltern Court, Baker Street]].<ref>Drabble, pp. 276 and 334</ref> As Marguerite would not agree to a divorce,{{refn|Drabble ascribes her obduracy to a combination of the vindictive and the mercenary – no divorce court would award a settlement as advantageous to her as the highly generous terms given to her by Bennett at their separation.<ref>Drabble, p. 310</ref>|group=n}} Bennett was unable to marry Dorothy, and in September 1928, having become pregnant, she changed her name by [[deed poll]] to Dorothy Cheston Bennett.<ref name=d308>Drabble, p. 308</ref>{{refn|Such recourse was familiar at the time, when unmarried couples were expected to make a token pretence of being married: in similar circumstances [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood's]] partner changed her name by deed poll to "Lady Jessie Wood",<ref>Jacobs, p. 324</ref> and as late as the 1950s [[Jane Grigson]] similarly took her undivorced partner's surname.<ref>Kennet, Wayland. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39832 "Grigson (née McIntire), (Heather Mabel) Jane (1928–1990), writer on cookery"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602142334/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39832 |date=2 June 2018 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 5 June 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Dorothy was never formally "Mrs Bennett", but after she and Marguerite were both present at the memorial service for Bennett, in [[St Clement Danes]] on 31 March 1931, ''The Times'' addressed the problem by referring to them as "Mrs Dorothy Bennett" and "Mrs Arnold Bennett" respectively.<ref>"Mr Arnold Bennett", ''The Times'', 1 April 1931, p. 17</ref>|group=n}} The following April she gave birth to the couple's only child, Virginia Mary (1929–2003).<ref name=d308/> She continued to appear as an actress, and produced and starred in a revival of ''Milestones'' which was well reviewed, but had only a moderate run.<ref name=d335>Drabble, p. 335</ref> Bennett had mixed feelings about her continuing stage career, but did not seek to stop it.<ref name=d335/>

During a holiday in France with Dorothy in January 1931, Bennett twice drank tap-water – not, at the time, a safe thing to do there.<ref>Drabble, p. 346; and Pound, p. 364</ref> On his return home he was taken ill; [[influenza]] was diagnosed at first, but the illness was [[typhoid fever]]; after several weeks of unsuccessful treatment he died in his flat at Chiltern Court on 27 March 1931, aged 63.<ref name=p367/>{{refn|In his last hours the local authority agreed that straw should be spread in the street outside Bennett's flat to dull the sound of traffic. This is believed to be the last time this traditional practice was carried out in London.<ref name=p367>Pound, p. 367</ref>|group=n}}

Bennett was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] and his ashes were interred in [[Burslem#Burslem cemetery|Burslem Cemetery]] in his mother's grave.<ref>Drabble, p. 353; and Pound, p. 367</ref> A memorial service was held on 31 March 1931 at [[St Clement Danes]], London, attended by leading figures from journalism, literature, music, politics and theatre, and, in Pound's words, many men and women who at the end of the service "walked out into a London that for them would never be the same again".<ref>Pound, p. 368</ref>