"Working all week at the lathe leaves Arthur Seaton with energy to spare at the weekends. A hard-drinking, hard-working rebel, he knows exactly what he wants, and how to get it. Before long his dalliances with a couple of married women make him the centre of local gossip. But then one evening he meets a young girl in a pub, and life begins to look a little less simple." "Alan Sillitoe's classic novel achieved instant critical acclaim, and now, fifty years after its first publication, it stands as one of the great works of twentieth-century British writing."--BOOK JACKET.