1802 The Arabian Nights

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Leather Binding

The complete five volume first edition thus, large paper edition.

Illustrated with three plates to Volume I, five plates each to Volumes II, III, and V, and four plates to Volume IV. Collated, bound without two plates to Volume I and one plate to Volume IV. Additionally, bound without the half-titles.

These plates are the work of painter and illustrator Robert Smirke, whose paintings works were often engraved and used to illustrated editions of such works as 'Don Quixote', and 'Gil Blas'.

In this edition, cleric and miscellany writer Edward Forster has translated Antoine Galland's enormously popular French edition of the tales into English.

'Arabian Nights', or 'One Thousand and One Nights', is a collection of folk tales from the Middle East. It was collected over centuries, with the roots of the tales being traced from Greek, Indian, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Jewish folklore.

The tales are being told by Scheherazade to the King Shahryar, in a bid to save her life. After discovering his wife was cheating on him, he killed her, and vowed to marry a new virgin every day, and then behead them the next. In this vein, he had killed one-thousand and one women before marrying Scheherazade. Scheherazade entices the King by telling him a story on their first night together, pausing halfway through as the sun came up. The King, being absorbed by the story, keeps Scheherazade alive, eager to hear more from her.

Bookplate of William Russell Griffiths to the front paste downs.