The Wedding Dress by Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

The Wedding Dress

Edited and with an introduction by John Shapcott, University of Keele.

Arnold Bennett's daughter discovered the manuscript of The Wedding Dress in a drawer at her Paris home in 1984. This lost work is now published for the first time.

Bennett wrote The Wedding Dress in 1921 as a novel, and as a film scenario for a major American film company, but it  never went into production. It is a sparkling tale of the romantic entanglements for four lovers, set amidst a grand country house and its grounds, a department store, hotels and hospital wards in the immediate aftermath of the 1st World War. Bennett uses all his characteristic wit and inventiveness to tell the tale of how the confused lovers come to realise their true feelings.

Whilst lively and vastly entertaining, The Wedding Dress does not neglect the post War scene and some of the harsh economic realities of the time.

Along with the publication of Punch and Judy in 2012, The Wedding Dress adds enormously to our knowledge of Bennett's involvement with the world of silent cinema.

Published by Churnet Valley Books 2013.