Title: The Rivals, a comedy in five acts Author: Richard Brinsley Sheridan Publisher: Photostat Facsimile reproduced from the copy in the Henry E. Huntington Libary. (See comments section below) Publishing Date: N/A Edition: N/A (See comments section below) Binding: Hardcover Pages: 93 Illustrated: No Interior Condition: Solid binding, complete and intact. Excellent condition Exterior Condition: Very good to excellent condition with light wear at top spine Dust Jacket: No Size: Folio ISBN: N/A Comments: The Rivals is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on January, 17, 1775. Research into the original production was published in 1935 by Oxford University Press and was edited by Richard Little Purdy, who owned this very reproduced copy of the original play, taken from a copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library. Richard Little Purdy's private library name plate appears on the inside front board. Our last photo depicts an article from 1935 in the New York Times which reviewed the Oxford University Press book which was edited by Purdy. It states, in part, "Chauncey Brewster Tinker and George Henry Nettleton and other sapient scholars looked over his shoulder helpfully from time to time while he was at work. But Mr. Purdy alone deserves the honors for this distinguished study of Sheridan's comedy as it was first-- and rather disastrously for the time being-- acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden." Richard Little Purdy, who was a retired professor of English at Yale University, died on August 7, 1990 in a nursing home in Chatham Township, New Jersey. He was 86 years old and lived in New Haven.