The Old Wives' Tale

The Old Wives’ Tale is a 1908 novel by British author Arnold Bennett (1867-1931). Some early editions bear the subtitle “A Novel of Life,” which indicates its expansive scope and its theme of examining the changes of life. The novel portrays two sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, from their teenage years in their parents’ home, to their separate lives in adulthood, through their coming back together in old age. It is widely considered one of Bennett’s masterworks, along with his novels Anna of the Five Towns, Clayhanger, and Riceyman Steps.

Bennett was a prodigious writer, producing 34 novels along with many short stories, plays, self-help books, and journal articles. He was active as a novelist from the turn of the 20th century until his death in 1931, and while the merits of his works were a subject of debate in literary and theatrical circles, he was among the most popular and financially successful writers of his lifetime.

The Old Wives’ Tale has been adapted as both a movie and a television series, and in 1998 the Modern Library ranked it 87th in a list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Please note, the discussion of Book 4, Chapter 5 in this guide contains a reference to death by suicide.

This study guide uses the 2007 Penguin Classics edition of The Old Wives’ Tale.

Plot Summary

The Old Wives’ Tale is divided into four books, corresponding to Constance and Sophia Baines’s adolescence (Book 1), Constance’s adulthood (Book 2), Sophia’s adulthood (Book 3), and the sisters’ reunion in old age (Book 4). Bennett sets his story in a town called Bursley—a fictionalized location based on the English town of Burslem, one of the “Six Towns” that incorporated to become Stoke-on-Trent. In Bennett’s novel, Bursley and the surrounding area of “Five Towns” form the setting for Book 1, which begins in the early 1860s. The Baines family leases a building on St. Luke’s Square in which they live and operate the family business, a draper’s shop. The mother, Mrs. Baines, runs both the household and the shop; her husband, John, is bedridden, having been incapacitated by a stroke. Constance is slightly older than Sophia and has an even-keeled temperament and a naive good-naturedness. Sophia is more impulsive and independent but, as later parts of the book reveal, shares her sister’s tendency toward common sense.

Book 1, titled “Mrs. Baines,” tells the family’s story during the girls’ teenage years. Sophia begins an impulsive romance with a traveling salesman, Gerald Scales, while Constance develops a slower-growing friendship with a shop assistant, Samuel Povey. On one occasion, in a moment of distraction, Sophia leaves her father’s bedside for a chance to meet Gerald, and her father in her absence. His passing has little effect on the other family members’ lives, but it marks a turning point in their stories. Mrs. Baines reacts strongly against Sophia’s romance, to the point of sending her away to live with an aunt in another town. Sophia responds by running away to elope with Gerald—and Mrs. Baines, shocked by this turn of events, steps down from the shop and leaves it in the hands of Constance and Samuel, who have announced their intention to marry.

Book 2, “Constance,” focuses on the older sister’s storyline. Samuel and Constance Povey get along well together, although they experience the commonplace tensions of a young marriage. A few years into their marriage, Samuel and Constance have a son, Cyril. He’s an intelligent child, gifted in many ways, but has a troubling streak of self-centeredness and a lack of empathy for others. A crisis unfolds for the Povey family when Samuel’s cousin Daniel is indicted for murdering his wife. Samuel exhausts himself in the effort to save his cousin, but in the end he fails, and the lost cause cripples his health. He passes away, leaving Constance to raise Cyril, now a teenager, alone. The family’s landlord purchases the business but nevertheless allows Constance and Cyril to continue living in the attached home. Cyril eventually succeeds in pursuing a career in art, defying the expectations of his mother, and leaves Constance alone in the Bursley house.

Book 3, “Sophia,” picks up Sophia’s story from the point of her elopement. Her paramour, Gerald, was planning the escapade as a passionate fling, not an actual marriage, but Sophia presses him for a proper wedding. After their marriage, they take up residence in Paris, living in hotels on the money Gerald received in an inheritance. He spends his money too lavishly, however, and nearly his entire inheritance is gone within the first four years. Their marriage crumbles along the way, as Sophia discerns more of his true character. She, who was the impulsive one in her family, now must take up the role of preaching moderation and common sense. Gerald eventually abandons her, and after a serious illness she finds herself recuperating in a Paris boardinghouse. It becomes her home, and she enters into business with the building’s owner before taking over the administration of the boardinghouse during the Franco-Prussian War. When the war is over, she uses her savings to buy an exclusive boardinghouse for English visitors in Paris and becomes well-known as a keen and capable businesswoman there.

In the final part of the novel, Book 4, “What Life Is,” Constance and Sophia reunite. A visitor from Bursley comes to the boardinghouse and realizes that the manager is the long-lost Baines sister, so upon his return he tells Constance of Sophia’s location. Constance writes to her sister, and Sophia sells her boardinghouse and returns to England. While Sophia doesn’t initially intend to take up permanent residence back in the old family home, circumstances work out that way, and the two sisters end up living together for the final years of their lives. Sophia passes away shortly after learning of the death of her long-estranged husband Gerald, when she’s shocked by the changes that time has wrought. Constance dies about a year later, just as major transformations sweep through their hometown.