The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night (Supplemental Nights), 12 Volumes Bound Into Six Burton, Richard F., Translator; Leonard C. Smithers, Ed. Mythology And Folklore

As fine an exemplar of the Bombay Edition of the classic tale of The Arabian Nights as can be found. Published in the 1920s (no precise date indicated) and printed for private subscribers only in a Special Limited Edition of 625 sets; this set complete in six volumes. Bound quite handsomely in black cloth boards with red and gilt lettering and designs to front covers and spines. Fine-looking, structurally sound hardcovers, minor wear to exteriors, bright interiors, unmarked, though with lightly waffled page edges throughout. Hardly any bumping to edges, not ex-library, and neither highlighting nor underlining anywhere. Red card stock endpapers front and rear, and on each is printed a facsimile line-drawing of the author and his name, front and rear. Each volume also reproduces five epigrams from Arabic, French, Latin and English. Each volume, twice, reproduces what appears to be an empty crossword puzzle but that must function as a kind of maze? Rough-cut fore-edges, perfect-cut bottom edges, top edges red-stained. Each volume includeds this Dedication, "Inscribed to the Memory of My Lamented Friend John Frederick Steinhaeuser (Civil Surgeon, Aden) who A Quarter of a Century Ago Assisted Me in this Translation." As noted on title pages, translated from the Arabic by Captain Sir R.F. Burton, a polymath if ever there were one. Reprinted from the original edition and edited by Leonard C. Smithers. Frontispiece illustrations to each volume. Part-traveler, part-journalist, part-linguist, part-ethnologist, always polymath, said to have been at least functionally literate in more than two dozen languages--this is Sir Richard Burton's magnum opus, a profoundly important interlocution between Western and Middle Eastern audiences, literary forms and literary traditions. There are three famous/infamous Richard Burtons; this Richard Burton travelled to Mecca, he explored at some length the African Great Lakes, and he shocked his friends, family and audience alike with fairly frank renderings of his social and sexual intercourse. His entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica notes his encyclopaedic knowledge of Arabic language, sexual practices and social and intimate life, evincing familiarity with nuances and idioms of Arabic that was backed up by almost ethnographic fieldwork. This Bombay Edition was crafted upon the true First Edition, which was published in 1885-1888 and then reissued for members of The Burton Club. Each of the tales is distinct and different but told wholly by Scheherazade who, quite smartly, postpones her foretold execution by telling her cruel husband Schahriah one more story, night after night, preventing the climax. Sir Burton arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai), was posted 320 miles away in Baroda a short time later and devoted his time to mastery of the Arabic language. Volume I: [7], xiv -xv [1], xviii-xxxii [1], 2-416 [6], viii, 431 pp.; Volume II: [6], viii-x, 1-444 [6], viii-x, 1-420 pp.; Volume III: [7], viii, 1-400, [6], 1-408 pp.; Volume IV: [6], viii, 1-406 [8], xii 1-424 pp.; Volume V: xiii [1], 2-444 [8], xix, 1-479 pp; Volume VI: ix [1], 1-495 pp. [7], xxiv, 1-399 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.