The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments

BURTON, Richard F. Illustrated by Valenti Angelo.

$1,500.00

Item Number: 145165

New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1934.

Privately printed signed Limited Editions Club edition of the unabridged translation of Burton’s famed work. Octavo, six volumes bound in half leather over printed paper boards, elaborate geometric and botanical stamping to the spine, illustrated with 1001 drawings by Valenti Angelo. One of fifteen hundred numbered copies made for the members of The Limited Editions Club and signed by the illustrator, Valenti Angelo, on the colophon, this is number 1398. In fine condition. An exceptional set.

The Alf Layla wa-Layla ("One Thousand Nights and a Night") have enchanted readers for centuries with shimmering visions of "a land of fable environment whose deserts and oases, bazaars and slums, jeweled caverns and minaret-topped edifices are immediately recognizable" (Clute & Grant, 51). Esteemed explorer and scholar Richard Burton translated and annotated the Arabian Nights, intending to create "a legacy to his countrymen, of whose imperial mission he was ever mindful, and to perpetuate the fruit of his own oriental experiences" (DNB).