Napoleon's Opera-Glass: An Histrionic Study

Boards discolored; wear to spine ends; pages tight and clean, with light foxing to endpapers. Ink ownership stamp on inside back cover of John B. Doukas. Inscribed on front endpaper: "To my dear sister Fannie/ from her obliged and affect. brother Lew Rosen/ London, Nov of 96." Rosen was an interesting figure: publisher of Broadway magazine -- notorious for the "Tenderloin Issue," featuring indecent photos obscured by lampblack that could be rubbed off with a piece of bread -- and the first person prosecuted for obscenity under the Comstock Act; the Supreme Court upheld his conviction just months before this book was published. "Napoleon's Opera-Glass" is a curious little monograph that treats Napoleon "as a theatergoer, as a critic and patron of the drama, and as a familiar of playwrights and players." An uncommon title, published only in London, and genuinely scarce signed. 122 pages + 24-page publisher's catalog.