ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents a collection which shows that the long nineteenth century was a period in which dietic and culinary practices changed as much as any other facet of culture; separation from food sources, globalisation of cuisine, new social dining environments, increased accessibility to processed and manufactured foods: all are features of the new gustatory and culinary landscape of urban modernity. The triumvirate relationship between food, bodies and text is at the centre of Riceyman Steps, as Arnold Bennett's 1923 novel carefully but forcefully asserts not just the legitimacy but the importance of the material and quotidian as a source of subjective determination and of art. Bennett foregrounds material concerns through the narrative's realist elements, its investment in the detail of the domestic and culinary culture of the early twentieth century.
