Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.

Bennett died of typhoid at his home in Baker Street London on 27 March 1931 after returning from a visit to France. After a visit to America in 1911 where he had been publicized and acclaimed as no other visiting writer since Dickens he returned to England where Old Wives' Tale was reappraised and hailed as a masterpiece. As well as the novels much of Bennett's non-fiction work has stood the test of time.

He is best known as a novelist but he also worked in other fields such as journalism propaganda and film. Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English writer.