Giuseppina Grassini was among Europe's first true international singing stars, captivating audiences from Rome to London. A headline attraction both on stage and in high society, she was romantically connected to two infamous rivals: Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. Personally, I suspect Wellington took particular satisfaction in seducing Napoleon’s lovers, it seems entirely in character for him.

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Fifteen years after her last London performance, Grassini appeared in Thomas De Quincey’s literary classic, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:

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"The choruses were divine to hear, and when Grassini appeared in some interlude, as she often did, and poured forth her passionate soul as Andromache at the tomb of Hector, &c., I question whether any Turk, of all that ever entered the Paradise of Opium-eaters, can have had half the pleasure I had."

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This reference connects De Quincey’s pioneering addiction narrative to Paula Byrne’s biography, The Real Jane Austen, which explores the possibility of Austen’s father having a side business involving laudanum. While creating a laudanum advertisement for the magazine was tempting, this creative director felt that, unlike historians, a 21st-century editorial lens shouldn't stray into such contentious territory.