Clayhanger

Arnold Bennett's 'Clayhanger' is a coming-of-age novel set in Victorian England, chronicling Edwin Clayhanger's journey from schoolboy to adult. Despite his father's rags-to-riches success story, Edwin takes his family's prosperity for granted and initially lets his ambition of becoming an architect be overridden by his father, taking on an office job at his printing business instead. Along the way, he falls in love and confronts the hypocrisies of society. It is only after his father's death that Edwin begins to find his own voice and rekindles his relationship with Hilda Lessways, a woman from a different social class.