Reprinted From the Original Edition and Edited by Leonard C. Smithers
Illustrated by a Series of Seventy-one Original Illustrations Reproduced From the Original Pictures in Oils Specially Painted by Albert Letchford
In Twelve Volumes:
Vol. I. xxxii + 416, with one portrait and ten illustrations
Vol. II. viii + 431, with six illustrations
Vol. III. x + 444 , with nine illustrations
Vol. IV. x 420, with six illustrations
Vol. V. viii + 400, with eight illustrations
Vol. VI. [viii] + 408, with six illustrations
Vol. VII. viii + 406, with seven illustrations
Vol. VIII. xii + 424, with four illustrations
Vol. IX. [xiv] + 444, with four illustrations
Vol. X. [xx] + 479, with four illustrations
Vol. XI. [x] + 495, with three illustrations
Vol. XII. xxiv + 399, with three illustrations
8vo (255 x 170 mm), bound in three-quarter red morocco, with green art linen sides, top edges gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers and cloth hinges. Contained in a wooden case or 'casket' covered with olive green morocco and with a fold down front with the title in Arabic ( أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ ʾAlf Laylah wa-Laylah) and a lock (key is missing). The leather is now faded to brown and the leather on the back of the case is damaged with some loss. There is a nick in the leather at the top of the spine of volume XI.
Penzer (Norman M.) An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton,London, A.M. Philpot Ltd., 1923, pages 117-125, quoting from the Smithers and Nichols prospectus listing the four styles of binding known for this edition:
Style C. This is described in the prospectus as follows:— " In three-quarter levant. Selected Syrian, large-grained, Angora goat skins, Sumac tanned, of the characteristic Damascus red. Full gold back and five doubled bands, Grolier corners, gold tops, tooled sides, silk head bands, triple-cord stitching, hollow backs, reinforced joints, gold veined end-papers. The twelve volumes enclosed in a leather casket, 23" x 12½" x 8½", to place on an ordinary book-shelf or stand on a table. The casket in olive green morocco, lined soft cloth, with spring lock and key of Oriental design. It contains the 71 Letchford plates."
500 sets of the edition were issued.
'One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ ʾAlf Laylah wa-Laylah) is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition (c.1706–1721), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.
Common to all the editions of the Nights is the framing device of the story of the ruler Shahryar being narrated the tales by his wife Scheherazade, with one tale told over each night of storytelling. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while some are self-contained. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights of storytelling, while others include 1001 or more. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used for songs and riddles and to express heightened emotion. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer.
'The main frame story concerns Shahryār, whom the narrator calls a "Sasanian king" ruling in "India and China". Shahryār is shocked to learn that his brother's wife is unfaithful. Discovering that his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her killed. In his bitterness and grief, he decides that all women are the same. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him.
Eventually the Vizier (Wazir), whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins another one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion of that tale as well, postpones her execution once again. This goes on for one thousand and one nights, hence the name.
‘Burton's translation was one of two unabridged and unexpurgated English translations done in the 1880’s and is central to his literary reputation. The erotic nature of the stories was shocking to Victorian readers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
- Overall Condition: Very good
