The Card

The Card
AuthorArnold Bennett
LanguageEnglish
GenreComedy
PublisherMethuen & Co.
Publication date
1911
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages305

The Card is a comic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911 (entitled Denry the Audacious in the American edition[1]). It was later made into a 1952 movie, starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark.

Like much of Bennett's best work, it is set in the Staffordshire Potteries. It chronicles the rise of Edward Henry ("Denry") Machin from washerwoman's son to Mayor of Bursley (a fictitious town based on Burslem). This is accomplished through luck, initiative and a fair bit of cheek (in slang a card is a 'character', an 'original'; a clever, audacious, person[2]).

Denry Machin returned, as the slightly more mature "Edward Henry", in Bennett's sequel The Regent (1913) (titled The Old Adam in its first US edition).

  1. ^ Cameron, Kate (29 October 1952). "Arnold Bennett Novel A Fine Guinness Film". Daily News. p. 80. Retrieved 8 April 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "Card" n2 1.2.c