Spella Ho

London: Jonathan Cape. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. [nice clean copy with minimal shelfwear; the jacket is just about as nice, with just a touch of edgewear, but with a small chip at the base of the spine and a tiny hole torn in the middle of the spine]. "Spella Ho is the name of a great house. The novel which bears its name might be called the story of a great man. Son of a drunken carrier, miserably poor, illiterate, ugly, and with almost no assets except great physical strength and an immense courage, Bruno Shadbolt is drawn throughout his life by two great influences, women and money. How he teaches himself to read and write, how he gets his first crude ideas of business, how he gradually works himself up, paying the bitter penalties of his ignorance and his obsession for wealth, and how finally he comes to own the great house near which he was born -- these struggles form the basis on which this long novel is built." .