Anna of the Five Towns · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett.
Chapter 1
Dedication
The author dedicates the book to Herbert Sharpe, an artist whose individuality and achievement have been a source of inspiration.
Chapter 2
Epigraph
The epigraph presents a brief poetic statement that frames the narrative as a homely and rude history, intended for the delight of a few natural hearts.
Chapter 3
Anna of the Five Towns
The chapter introduces Anna Tellwright, a young woman living in the Five Towns under the oppressive rule of her father, Ephraim Tellwright. It explores her constrained life, her relationships with figures like Henry Mynors and Willie Price, and the social and religious dynamics of the community.
Chapter 4
I: The Kindling of Love
The chapter opens on a hot Sunday afternoon as children burst out of Sunday-school. Agnes Tellwright waits for her sister Anna, and is approached by Henry Mynors and Willie Price. Mynors teases Agnes about her prize book. Mrs. Sutton invites them to a sewing-meeting. Anna eventually emerges, and she and Mynors walk together to the new Park, with Agnes between them. They encounter Beatrice Sutton, who invites Mynors to supper. The chapter explores Anna's complex feelings about Mynors and the social dynamics of Bursley.
Chapter 5
II: The Miser’s Daughter
This chapter provides a detailed backstory of Ephraim Tellwright, his rise to wealth through frugality and shrewd investments, his two marriages, and his eventual retirement from business and religious work. It also depicts Anna's quiet Sunday evening at Bleakridge, reflecting on her father's enigmatic character and her own constrained life.
Chapter 6
III: The Birthday
On her twenty-first birthday, Anna Tellwright inherits a substantial fortune from her grandfather, including properties and investments worth over £48,000. Her father, Ephraim Tellwright, instructs her to manage her own affairs, including collecting rent from Titus Price, who is deeply in arrears. Anna visits the bank, opens an account, and then goes to Edward Street to confront Price about his debt, feeling both the weight of her new wealth and the moral hypocrisy of Price as a Sunday-school superintendent.
Chapter 7
IV: A Visit
Anna attends a Special Teachers' Meeting to plan a Revival, where she is publicly called upon to visit the homes of her Sunday-school scholars. After the meeting, Henry Mynors walks her home, expressing his genuine concern for her spiritual welfare. At home, Mynors joins the family for supper, and Anna grapples with her feelings of inadequacy and her growing admiration for him.
Chapter 8
V: The Revival
Anna visits her schoolchildren's homes, finding the task uncongenial but persevering. Her father reveals that Henry Mynors has proposed a business partnership requiring a £2,000 investment, which Tellwright approves and instructs Anna to communicate. At the revival meeting, Anna experiences a profound spiritual crisis, feeling overwhelmed by sin and unable to achieve conversion despite the exhortations of Mrs. Sutton and others.
Chapter 9
VI: Willie
Anna struggles with her spiritual crisis while dealing with her father's harsh financial demands on Willie Price. She attends a prayer meeting but feels humiliated and distant from peace. Returning home, she faces domestic failures and her father's anger. That night, she wrestles with despair, pride, and the impossibility of redemption, resolving to confess her sin at breakfast.
Chapter 10
VII: The Sewing Meeting
Anna receives an invitation to a sewing meeting at the Suttons' and reluctantly agrees to attend. At the meeting, Henry Mynors publicly declares his interest in her, and afterward he walks her home. They share a tender moment in her kitchen, and Mynors helps Agnes with her sums before leaving abruptly.
Chapter 11
On the Bank
Anna begins to receive her July interest and dividends, a process that bewilders her and feels unreal. Despite her new fortune, she cannot spend any of it due to her father's control and the partnership agreement with Mynors. She visits Mynors' pottery works, where he shows her the manufacturing process, and she is awed by his knowledge and the scale of the operation. Later, her father returns and rebukes her for being out while he was away, demanding to know if Titus Price has sent rent.
Chapter 12
IX: The Treat
Ephraim Tellwright's domestic tyranny is explored as instinctive and unquestioned. Willie Price visits in response to a rent demand, displaying fawning humility. Mrs. Sutton and Mr. Banks pressure Tellwright into a £25 subscription to the school building fund, matching Titus Price's pledge. Mrs. Sutton then secures Tellwright's permission for Anna to join the Suttons on a trip to the Isle of Man, with Henry Mynors likely accompanying. Anna obtains money for the school treat tickets, and the treat takes place at Sneyd, where Titus Price is absent and Mynors leads.
Chapter 13
X: The Isle
Anna prepares for and embarks on a holiday to the Isle of Man with the Sutton family and Henry Mynors. The chapter details her quiet courtship with Mynors, her secret use of a money order to buy clothes, the emotional departure from her sister Agnes, and the overwhelming new experiences of travel and arrival at Port Erin.
Chapter 14
XI: The Downfall
The chapter details the aftermath of Titus Price's suicide, which shocks the town and the Methodist community. Anna Tellwright, burdened by guilt for having pressed Price for rent, learns of the tragedy from Henry Mynors. She confronts her father's harshness and her own complicity. The chapter also covers Anna's return from the Isle of Man, her engagement to Mynors, and her father's cynical remarks about Mynors' motives.
Chapter 15
At the Priory
Anna faces the aftermath of her father's wrath over her secret actions to help Willie Price. She finds a grim satisfaction in having survived his extreme anger and in having secured Willie's deliverance. Weeks later, she reconnects with the Suttons and Mynors, but her hidden turmoil persists. When Miss Sarah Vodrey falls gravely ill, Anna selflessly nurses her at the Priory, where she encounters Willie Price. The chapter also reveals the financial collapse of the Price family business and the impending mayoralty of Mr. Sutton, deepening Anna's internal conflict between her love for Mynors and her compassion for Willie.
Chapter 16
XIII: The Bazaar
Anna becomes absorbed in preparations for the Wesleyan Bazaar, which helps distract her from recent troubles. Mrs. Sutton advises her about wedding preparations and the cost of a trousseau and house-linen. Anna asks her father Ephraim for a hundred pounds of her own money, leading to a fierce argument. He eventually throws her bankbooks at her in anger. Anna consults Henry Mynors, who reveals she has over £250 and that her father claims she is worth £50,000. Mynors also discloses that Titus Price embezzled £50 from the building fund; Anna insists on paying half to keep the scandal quiet. The bazaar is a great success, raising nearly £500.
Chapter 17
XIV: End of a Simple Soul
Anna meets Willie Price on the morning of his departure after his father's suicide. She gives him a note and a hundred pounds, and they share a moment of mutual love. Despite her feelings for Willie, Anna marries Henry Mynors out of duty, and Willie disappears, likely having drowned himself in a pitshaft.
Chapter 18
Endnotes
This chapter provides explanatory notes on regional dialect, industrial terms, and local customs referenced in the main text, clarifying terms such as 'Tellwright,' 'Bank,' 'Biscuit,' 'Jacket-man,' 'Saggars,' 'Welly,' 'Meet,' and 'Cut.'
