'... he devotes a whole serious and excellent essay to an exploration of the fame of Silas Hocking, who wrote novels calculated to please "the taste of the Methodist million, who was unheard of in Knightsbridge but wildly popular in the dissenting provinces". Apart from any other interest, this essay throws light on Bennett's own reading background; he discusses the debate between Puritanism and the arts, describes the deep suspicion with which all fiction was regarded in Hocking circles and says: "How often have I heard the impatient words: 'This is too exciting for me; if I went on I shouldn't be able to leave it'." It must have been up in Burslem, where reading had recently been regarded as a wicked sin, that he heard such remarks.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett Print: Book
'amongst all else she [Causley's mother] found a little time for reading from a two-penny library: novels by the Cornish writers Silas and Joseph Hocking ("Rosemary Carew", by the latter, was a tremendous favourite) and "Stella Dallas" by the American Olive Higgins Prouty. She also had a few books of her own: "The Following of the Star" by Florence L. Barclay, "The Sorrows of Satan" by Marie Corelli, and the like. I tried them all, and enjoyed most: especially "Stella Dallas", which exercised a peculiar fascination over me. I re-read it constantly and with such devotion that she forbade me ever to read it again. I couldn't think why; and not until years later did it occur to me that the central character was a prostitute'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Causley Print: Book
