Phyllis Bentley

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Standard Name: Bentley, Phyllis
Birth Name: Phyllis Eleanor Bentley
Indexed Name: Phyllis E. Bentley
Pseudonym: Mary Elizabeth Carr
Indexed Name: Phyllis Eleanor Bentley
Phyllis Bentley was a prolific and successful novelist, literary critic, short-story writer, children's writer, and journalist, who was productive over a broad span of the twentieth century. Almost all her twenty-eight novels and numerous short stories are set in her native West Riding of Yorkshire and many are historical as well as regional, focussing on the textile trade and the effects of industrialization in that region. A realist with a strong sense of historical process, she sought to write novels which should present life exactly at [sic] it really was, and by so doing help to better the world.
Bentley, Phyllis. "O Dreams, O Destinations". Gollancz, 1962.
107
She was deeply influenced by the Brontë s, and wrote several literary studies of the history of Haworth and the Brontëfamily , as well as of the regional novel and of narrative form.
A drawing of Phyllis Bentley wearing small circular glasses, against a white background with a green haze concentrated in the centre of the image and her signature in the lower left, 1937. Cigarette card 3 of 40 from the Famous British Authors series by WD & HO Wills and the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland Ltd.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Margaret Kennedy
Notable women writers such as May Sinclair and Phyllis Bentley , a recent predecessor to MK , had also been educated there. Margaret would later recreate Cheltenham in The Constant Nymph as Cleeve College.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann, 1983.
25-6
Friends, Associates Winifred Holtby
Another important friend of WH 's last years was Phyllis Bentley , whom she met in Yorkshire in 1929.
Friends, Associates Margaret Kennedy
Other women writers with whom MK established friendships included Lettice Cooper , Phyllis Bentley (who had also been at Cheltenham ), Marghanita Laski , Elizabeth Jenkins , and Rose Macaulay . These authors supported and...
Friends, Associates Vera Brittain
VB struck up a friendship with Phyllis Bentley , and invited her to stay at Glebe Place.
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell, 1996.
227
Friends, Associates Dorothy Whipple
Living in the north, DW remained outside London literary circles. She found the company of councillors and their wives rather dispiriting and seem[ed] to have so much of it (because of her husband's job).
Whipple, Dorothy. Random Commentary. Michael Joseph, 1966.
40
Friends, Associates Mary Agnes Hamilton
Working for the Ministry of Information during World War Two, she became friendly with the distinguished novelistPhyllis Bentley ,
Hamilton, Mary Agnes. Up-Hill All the Way. Cape, 1953.
112
whose warmth and strength of feeling she found attractive if sometimes hard on herself...
Literary responses Frances Hodgson Burnett
The American reviews were highly flattering. The reviewer for the Boston Transcript could think of no more powerful work from a woman's hand in the English language, not even George Eliot at her best.
qtd. in
Gerzina, Gretchen. Frances Hodgson Burnett. Chatto and Windus, 2004.
67
Literary responses Joanna Cannan
These books were praised by a whole roster of other women novelists: Elizabeth Bowen , Phyllis Bentley , and Pamela Hansford Johnson . Bowen observed of the first that there was much more to this...
Occupation Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda
Women contributors ranged widely: Rebecca West , Stella Benson , Cicely Hamilton , Members of Parliament Lady Nancy Astor and Ellen Wilkinson , Virginia Woolf , Naomi Mitchison , E. M. Delafield , Rose Macaulay
Textual Features Vera Brittain
VB once again draws heavily on her own experience. Ruth Alleyndene is based on herself and some critics believe that Ruth's husband Denis Rutherston is based on George Catlin (though Leonardi maintains that neither VB
Textual Features Antonia Fraser
The Dictionary of Literary Biography calls Jemima Shore a new kind of woman detective.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276
Her independence, intelligence, and literary sensibility are nothing new, but her rejection of marriage and her cheerful sexual promiscuity are...
Textual Production Storm Jameson
Jameson had been approached by the Ministry of Information once the USA had entered World War II, for suggestions on how to cement Anglo-American relations.
Jameson, Storm. Journey from the North. Harper and Row, 1970.
524
The resulting volume includes work by Phyllis Bentley ,...
Textual Production Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ 's critical biography Henry Fielding was an early volume in Home and Van Thal 's English Novelists series (in which the first was Phyllis Bentley 's The Brontës).
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
2384 (11 October 1947): 518; 2362 (10 May 1947): 227

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Bentley, Phyllis. "O Dreams, O Destinations". Gollancz, 1962.
Bentley, Phyllis. A Man of His Time. V. Gollancz, 1966.
Bentley, Phyllis. A Modern Tragedy. Macmillan, 1934.
Bentley, Phyllis. Carr. Ernest Benn, 1929.
Bentley, Phyllis. Carr. Lythway Press, 1967.
Bentley, Phyllis. Cat - in - the - Manger. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1923.
Bentley, Phyllis. Crescendo. V. Gollancz, 1958.
Bentley, Phyllis. Environment. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1922.
Bentley, Phyllis. Freedom Farewell!. V. Gollancz, 1936.
Bentley, Phyllis, and John Ogden. Haworth of the Brontës. T. Dalton, 1977.
Bentley, Phyllis. Inheritance. V. Gollancz, 1932.
Bentley, Phyllis. Inheritance. Gollancz, 1968, http://U Guelph .
Bentley, Phyllis. Kith and Kin. Gollancz, 1960.
Bentley, Phyllis. Kith and Kin. Cedric Chivers, 1973.
Bentley, Phyllis. Life Story. V. Gollancz, 1948.
Bentley, Phyllis. Manhold. Gollancz, 1941.
Bentley, Phyllis. Noble in Reason. Gollancz, 1955.
Bentley, Phyllis. Panorama. Gollancz, 1952.
Bentley, Phyllis. Quorum. Gollancz, 1950.
Bentley, Phyllis. Ring in the New. Gollancz, 1969.
Bentley, Phyllis. Sleep in Peace. V. Gollancz, 1938.
Bentley, Phyllis. Some Observations on the Art of Narrative. Home and Van Thel, 1946.
Bentley, Phyllis. Take Courage. V. Gollancz, 1940.
Bentley, Phyllis. The Brontës. Home and Van Thal, 1947.
Bentley, Phyllis. The English Regional Novel. Allen and Unwin, 1941.