The book has been recased and has a new spine strip, paste downs and end papers, though the original end papers have been retained; the marble boards are rubbed and chipped at the edges. The original front end paper has a neat ownership signature (New York 1851 - this is a well travelled book),and staining along thre edges as have the title page and the first text page. The title page and first page also suffer ffrom a short closed tear at the tail. Page 4 to page 9 are stained along the outer edge, which includes some of the print, quite badly on pp 6 and 7 in what looks like a coffee spill. pages 5/6 also suffer from loss at the outer edge towards the head. This does not effect the text. This same spill reappers intermittently throughout the play "La Pensionnaire Mariée, leaving pages 10 -11 stuck together in one spot in the middle of the pages. I have not attempted to separate them. And finally the end of "Les Bedouins en Voyage" has had a square cut out and replaced with a smiling child advertising Fry's chocolate, its verso, sadly covered by a balnk page, is an ad for Etzmann, Tottenham Court Road, advertising cooking ware. I am fairly sure tha no text has suffered from this cut and that both sides of the page were blank. The book is like Little Miss Muffett, when it is good, it ois very very good, when it is bad it is rotten.Thankfully it is mostly good. A collection of plays performed in Paris during 1835 or possibly 1834. I could find nothing on the history of its publication, except that it must have started in 1833.