The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns - by Arnold Bennett

This proved to be an enjoyable read overall. The story is not remotely believable and the same may be said of most of the characters, but I think that this was the author’s intent. I guess Denry is the kind of person who “if he fell down a drain, he would come up with a new suit”. The story is amusing and has some good twists and turns. Sometimes it was predictable, but I was also surprised from time to time.

I was surprised to find that, even though it never felt difficult to read, I made very slow progress and it took me quite a while to work through the 169 pages.

The language of the book is rather old-fashioned, but that is inevitable, given its age. I made much use of my Kindle’s built-in dictionary, but it was stumped from time to time. After a while, I “got my ear in” and enjoyed the style. Some language that I found interesting:

“He was not only regarded by the whole town as a fellow wonderful and dazzling, but he so regarded himself.”
“He spent far more on clothes alone than Denry spent in the entire enterprise of keeping his soul in his body.”
The use of the word “realty”, meaning “real estate”; no longer used here, only in the US.
The use of the word “tatterdemalions”. [It means tattily dressed people.]
A reference to an untidy person being “anyhow”. That is what my grandmother used to say.
A comment on chocolate manufacturers imprinting their “Quakerly names” on their products.

I am not sure whether I will explore more of the author’s work, as I am not sure what I might learn from his books [and I do like to learn stuff, even from fiction]. But, I guess if I feel like an easy, nostalgic read, I might.