The Thousand and One Nights: The Arabian Nights Entertainments. With an Introduction Illustrative of the Religion, Manners, and Customs of the Mohammedans.

BURTON, Richard.

$750.00

Item Number: 145314

London: J. C. Nimmo and Bain, 1883.

The Nimmo edition of Burton’s monumental masterpiece. Octavo, four volumes bound in three quarter maroon crushed levant morocco over marbled boards by Bayntun with gilt titles and five raised bands to the spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, illustrated with nineteen original etchings by Lalauze. One of 150 numbered copies printed on laid paper with proof etchings on Whatman paper, this is number 104. In good condition.

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).