8vo. [4], vii, [1], 75pp, [1]. With a half-title. Uncut in contemporary sponged wrappers, paper lettering-piece with title in manuscript to upper wrapper. Spine sunned. Internally clean and crisp. Presentation copy, inked inscription to head of half-title from the author to Madame La Duchesse de Raguse.

A presentation copy of the true first edition (without a frontispiece, as issued, and with the dedication leaf bound before, rather than after the preface) of Lucien Arnault's (1787-1863) immensely popular three act tragedy, a barely veiled critique of Napoleon.

Madame duchesse de Raguse [née Anne Marie Hortense Perregaux] (1779-1855), wife of Auguste Frederic Louis Viesse de Marmont (1774- 1852), Marshal to Napoleon, and daughter of the Swiss born banker Jean Frederic Perregaux (1744-1808).