Cover is very good. Pages are clean and unmarked . Additional Details ------------------------------ Product description: A study of early cinematic practice which investigates how the 19th-century stage, with its spectacles, melodramas, and panoramas, led to the pioneering work of E.S.Porter and D.W.Griffith. The emergence of cinema as the dominant visual art of this century was an event of enormous historical importance. To understand and evaluate this development is the aim of this study.