This is one of the Five Towns novels by Arnold Bennett, considered among the finest British writers of the early 20th century. 319 pages, plus 39 pages of book ads. The gold lettering and leaf design on the front cover and spine are still bright. The front cover corners are slightly bumped, and there are two modest front edge bumps. The spine has two tiny tears at the top. There are top and bottom paper cracks over the front hinge, and at the last page of ads the paper at the gutter is cracked -- though the webbing shows in both instances, the book's binding is still intact. Also noted are two short edge tears and some creasing in the ads, as well as a bit of pencil writing and markings, and some small corner creases in the regular text; also a previous owner's private library label on the front pastedown. Despite the blemishes, this is a rather nice-looking copy.