A severed head vs These twain

A severed head

Iris Murdoch

1961

In Iris Murdoch's "A Severed Head," a wealthy London academic's comfortable, if complacent, life unravels when his wife leaves him for a manipulative art dealer. As he navigates a series of increasingly bizarre and ethically questionable relationships with his former lover, his brother, and his ex-wife's new partner, he confronts the deceptive nature of love, desire, and identity. The novel explores the complexities of human connection and the search for truth within a world of intellectual pretense and emotional turmoil.

These twain

Arnold Bennett

1914

Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 - 27 March 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda and films. Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley was one of the Six Towns that were joined together at the beginning of the 20th century as Stoke-on-Trent and are depicted as "the Five Towns" in some of Bennett's novels. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the family moved to a larger house between Hanley and Burslem.