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The Old Wives Tale cover art

The Old Wives Tale

By: Arnold Bennett
Narrated by: Eileen Atkins
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Summary

Spanning nearly half a century, The Old Wives Tale is epic in scale and scope, tracing as it does the effects of time on two sisters and their surroundings. The novel is a domestic story told with tenderness, and is concerned not with heroic statesmen or soldiers, but with small details of daily life in a way which demonstrates Bennett’s great debt to french realist writers. The action is concentrated mainly within the provincial town of Bursley, a startling contrast to Paris where Sophia and Gerald elope.

©2011 Talking Classics (P)2011 Copyright Group

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Braving it out

Beautifully written, beautifully read. People and life stay the same no matter what decade they’re in.

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