1897 The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night

Description

Illustrated, Leather Binding, Publishers' Original Binding

Complete in twelve volumes.

The Kamashastra Edition, reprinted from an 1885 privately-circulated edition published by the Society. The Kamashastra Society was a fictional organisation founded by Richard Burton and Forster Fitzgerald to act as a legal device to avoid prosecution under obscenity laws, as they published risque works.

'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.

This translation is by Richard Burton. Burton's translation is celebrated, but was only able to be printed in subscribers-only editions upon the publication, due to the sexual content in the tales, which were frowned upon at the time. He travelled widely in Asia, Africa, and American, as was a very talented linguist, being able to speak twenty-nine languages, including French, Romani, Saraiki, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Swahili, and Hebrew.

Volume I is illustrated with a frontispiece and ten plates.

Volume II is illustrated with a frontispiece and five plates.

Volume III is illustrated with a frontispiece and eight plates.

Volume IV is illustrated with a frontispiece and five plates.

Volume V is illustrated with a frontispiece and seven plates.

Volume VI is illustrated with a frontispiece and five plates.

Volume VII is illustrated with a frontispiece and six plates.

Volume VIII is illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates.

Volume IX is illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates.

Volume X is illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates.

Volume XI is illustrated with a frontispiece.

Volume XII is illustrated with a frontispiece and two plates.

Collated, complete.

Edited with notes by Leonard C. Smithers.

Illustrations by Albert Letchford.