A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, now entitled The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night

$650 · Offered by Book Collector Inc

Author: Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) Year: c 1905 Publisher: The Burton Club for subscribers only Place: London and Boston Description: 17 volumes with frontispieces, illustrations and indexes. Royal octavo (9 3/4"" x 6 1/2") bound in original publisher's light green cloth with labels to spine. and gilt head end pages with deckled edges. Bassorah edition, number 129 limited to 1000 copies. Burton's translation was one of two unabridged and unexpurgated English translations done in the 1880s; the first was by John Payne, under the title The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882–1884, nine volumes). Burton's ten volume version was published almost immediately afterward with a slightly different title. This, along with the fact that Burton closely advised Payne and partially based his books on Payne's, led later to charges of plagiarism. Owing to the sexual imagery in the source texts (which Burton made a special study of, adding extensive footnotes and appendices on "Oriental" sexual mores) and to the strict Victorian laws on obscene material, both translations were printed as private editions for subscribers only, rather than being published in the usual manner. Burton's original ten volumes were followed by a further seven entitled The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (1886–1888). The electros from the "Burton Society" edition were acquired by the "Burton Club" — “ the nom de plume of a certain Boston publisher”, according to N.C. Penzer.

• Binding: Hardcover

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