Arnold Bennett

Mr. Prohack Arnold Bennett

This book explores the boundaries between the English middle and upper classes and the corrosive effects of too much money. Arthur Prohack is a Treasury official admired and feared by people at all levels of government. At home, he is affection itself to his quiet, ever-anxious wife, Marian, and to their two grown children, Charles and Sissie. Then Mammon enters the picture in the form of a bequest from a debtor whose loan Mr. Prohack had long ago written off. In a matter of days, the frugal Marian has become "Eve, " a neurotic who purchases chauffeured autos and rents mansions without so much as a word to her husband. Army veteran Charles begins squandering his patrimony on used motorcycles and questionable stock options. Sissie flees to the suburbs to open a dance studio and spoon with a lisping, monocle-wearing Bright Young Person. Unable to continue in his comfortable middle-class rut, Mr. Prohack gives in and devotes himself to idleness, the one sin he has never been able to abide. The love of money has spoiled the perfect English family. . . but not irretrievably, as all four Prohacks discover when their true natures begin to crack the "U" veneer.