A Plain And Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On The Manners And Customs Of Moslem Men And A Terminal Essay Upon The History Of The Nights. (With) The Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Benares: Printed by the Kamashastra Society. For Private Subscribers Only, 1885-1888.
First edition.
Sixteen volumes. Octavo. With the publisher’s one-page “Memorandum†laid-into volume I. Publisher’s full black cloth, covers and spines stamped in gilt (or silver, in the case of the Supplemental Nights), covers ruled in blind. Some wear to spine ends, spines of volumes XXI to XVI slightly sunned (as usual) the first ten volumes bright. Overall, a near fine set.
The true first edition of Sir Richard Burton’s monumental Arabian Nights in the original binding. Distinguishable from later pirated editions (for example, those published by the Burton Club) by the presence of the copyright notice on the verso of the title pages, “Owing to the fact that casual buyers might purchase one of the numerous reprints in mistake for the original edition, it will not be superfluous to give details of one distinguishing feature. Illustrations can be removed, the original binding copied exactly, but the verso of the title page of the original differs from all the subsequent issues, as it has the name and date of the copyrighter...†Subsequent official editions were heavily edited to remove passages that were thought to be obscene. All the later piracies were facsimiles, so the 1885 first edition remains the only complete edition printed from type. The original cloth binding was integral to the overall conception of the book: “The colour of the cloth was specially chosen by Burton as representing the colour of the Abbaside banners and dress. It was originally a badge of mourning adopted by them for the Imam Ibrahim bin Mohammed, put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwanâ€
Despite its deliberately archaic style, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night…has become the pre-eminent English translation of the Middle Eastern classic. It is the keystone of Burton’s literary reputation.
Irwin, The Arabian Nights A Companion, 1994; Penzer, An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1923
ID:
3040
$
11,000