''Riceyman Steps'' is a novel by British novelist

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

for fiction. It follows a year in the life of Henry Earlforward, a miserly second-hand bookshop owner in the

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...

area of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Background

Arnold Bennett was a keen amateur sailor and it was while on sailing trips on the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

he discovered a chaotic second-hand bookshop in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. He would visit the shop when bad weather prevented sailing and on one visit he bought a book on

miser A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone ...

s for sixpence. This book and the shop itself became the inspiration for this novel. Bennett also loved the

district of London which with its unpretentious working class life reminded him of his own origins in

the Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, Stoke ( ...

. The location Riceyman Steps was modelled on Granville Place (now Gwynne Place) the steps of which lead up from King's Cross Road to Granville Square. Bennett's steps are "twenty in number, ... divided by a half-landing into two series of ten", whereas the steps of Granville Place number (from the bottom) fifteen, with eleven more from the half-landing.

Granville Square Granville Square is a prominent tower located at 200 Granville Street in the Financial District of the downtown core of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Completed in 1973, the building stands at 138.4 metres (454 feet) tall. The building and i ...

, now a residential square containing a small park, was in 1923 dominated by St Philip's Church, which was demolished in 1936.

Plot summary

The story takes place in 1919–1920, just after

the First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and is divided into five parts. It deals with the final year in the life of its main character, Henry Earlforward, a

with a slight limp, who keeps a second-hand bookshop in the

area of London, at Riceyman Steps. Henry harbours a secret passion for Violet Arb, a widow who inherits a neighbouring confectionery shop. When Henry tries to woo Violet, the widow realizes that they share the same

charwoman Charwoman, chargirl, charlady and char are occupational terms referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the ho ...

and maid servant in the simple, loyal Elsie Sprickett. When Elsie's boyfriend, the

shell-shock Shell shock is a term that originated during World War I to describe symptoms similar to those of combat stress reaction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which many soldiers suffered during the war. Before PTSD was officially recogni ...

ed war veteran Joe, loses self-control and runs after Violet with a carving-knife at her shop, Henry gallantly intervenes after Violet approaches Henry for help. Violet, who sees in Henry a financially secure future, finally decides to marry him after a short courtship. Joe, meanwhile, disappears after writing a letter to Elsie that he will come for her when he has recovered from his traumatic disorder. Henry's parsimony drives the married couple into an increasingly wretched existence. He is aghast, for example, when Violet spends fourteen pounds vacuuming his dusty shop as a wedding present. He begins eating less and less, even forgoing meat for cheese, and refuses to go to the hospital to treat his undernourishment when the doctor and his wife insist that he does. All the while Elsie stands devoted to the couple, despite having problems of her own—she pines secretly for Joe, and pilfers food to binge eat at night. Their lives—in which Henry's passion for money and his obstinacy finally consume himself and his wife—are contrasted to that of their loyal maid servant Elsie Sprickett, and it is the latter, despite her extreme poverty, who brings life and a future to the bittersweet tale.

Characters

*Henry Earlforward *Violet Arb (later Earlforward) *Elsie Sprickett *Joe *Dr Raste The character of Elsie reappears in ''Elsie and the Child: A Tale of Riceyman Steps and Other Stories'' (1924).

References

* Foreword to the 1953 Penguin edition by

Frank Swinnerton Frank Arthur Swinnerton (12 August 1884 – 6 November 1982) was an English novelist, critic, biographer and essayist. He was the author of more than 50 books, and as a publisher's editor helped other writers including Aldous Huxley and Lytton ...

*''Riceyman Steps'', 1983 reprint (Twentieth Century Classics), Oxford Paperbacks

External links

* * * *
The Amwell Society
Local Clerkenwell society - click on 'history' and look for the slideshow relating to Riceyman Steps. This includes a set of slides with a guide to the area in which the novel is set and pictures of the steps today.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riceyman Steps 1923 British novels Fiction set in 1919 Fiction set in 1920 Novels by Arnold Bennett Novels set in London