DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). The Village Coquettes: A Comic Opera. In two Acts... the Music by John Hullah. London: Richard Bentley, 1836.

Spiegelberg copy of the first edition of Dickens’s only libretto. Although this comic opera was enjoyed by the public, young critic John Forster wrote that “the libretto was totally unworthy of Boz.” Dickens opined to composer Hullah of the review: “it is rather depreciatory of the Opera but … so well done I cannot help laughing at it, for the life and soul of me” (See Clair Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life, 72). Forster and Dickens would go on to become trusted friends, with the former writing a notable biography of the author and ending up married to the widow of Dickens’s early publisher Macrone. Eckel, 157-158; Podeschi/Gimbel A25; Yale/Gimbel A25.

Octavo (225 x 136mm). 19th-century red calf gilt, top edge gilt, speckled endpapers, a few gatherings partially uncut (rebacked, front flyleaf detached, a bit rubbed). Provenance: Sir David Salomons, 1797-1873 (armorial bookplate) – H. D. Colvill-Scott (armorial bookplate) – Frederick Spiegelberg 1897-1994, professor of Asian religion at Stanford University (bookplate).