Paris nights, and other impressions of places and people (The Collected works of Arnold Bennett)

One of Arnold Bennett's best books, his descriptions are memorable and sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad, sometimes serious. Read this description of one woman: "This was a tall, large-boned, ugly, coquettish woman, with a strong physical attractiveness and a voice that caused vibrations in your soul. She was in white, with a powerful leather waistband which suited her. She was intimate with everybody except me, and by a natural gift and force she held the attention of everybody from the moment of her entrance. You could see she was used to that. The time was a quarter to midnight, and she explained that she had been trying to arrive for hours, but could not have succeeded a second sooner."