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The Phantom of the Opera
by Leroux, Gaston
- Used
- Very Good
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Good
- Seller
-
Portland, Oregon, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1911. First American Edition. Very Good/Good. First American edition in the only known dust jacket of this variant, and one of only four or five known surviving dust jackets total. Bound in publisher's brick red cloth decorated in blind and stamped in white. Very Good with light soiling and wear to cloth, worming to textblock edge, previous owner name to front free endpaper and several page corners bent. In a Good chipped, worn and stained dust jacket, with front flap partially separated and abraded at the bottom half and a horizontal closed tear across the spine panel affecting the word "Opera"; unsophisticated and a hitherto unrecorded variant nonetheless.
French artist Andre Castaigne painted five watercolors for this work, utilized as color plates in this edition. As jacketed copies have only been recently been discovered- the first at auction in 2015- it is becoming clear that Bobbs-Merrill used each illustration for a color dust jacket design. This was an unusual display of largesse and graphic design savviness at a time when jackets were generally drab reproductions of the book's boards and considered disposable. This copy adds a small piece to the bibliographical puzzle of this edition, which introduced Leroux's suspenseful novel to America. It would inspire a silent film and the smash-hit musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986.
Synopsis
The Phantom of the Opera is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910. Initially, the story sold very poorly upon publication in book form and was even out of print several times during the twentieth century, despite the success of its various film and stage adaptations. The most notable of these were the 1925 film depiction and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 140941832
- Title
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Author
- Leroux, Gaston
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First American Edition
- Publisher
- The Bobbs-Merrill Company
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1911
- Keywords
- dust jacket, musicals, Broadway, Andre Castaigne, jackets, Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature;
Terms of Sale
Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
Biblio member since 2010
Portland, Oregon
About Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
Burnside Rare Books specializes in literary first editions and works of cultural and historic significance. We are located in Portland, Oregon and welcome visitors by appointment.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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