First edition burton arabian nights. First edition of Burton's magnum opus, The Arabian Nights. Richard Burton was an accomplished geographer, explorer, orientalist, ethnologist, diplomat, polylinguist and author who is best known for this translation of Arabian Nights. One of the great Arabists of his day, he had long wanted to publish an unexpurgated version of the "Arabian Nights" stories. The preceeding English translations into English (from the original Arabic), notably that by Edward Lane (1839), were notably abridged editions of the text. In translating the Nights, Burton "attempted to invent an English equivalent of medieval Arabic. In doing so, he drew upon Chaucerian English, Elizabethan English, and the 1653 English translation by Sir Thomas Urquhart of the first three books of Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel" (Byatt).

Easily distinguished as the first edition from the numerous reprints by the presence of the copyrighter to verso of titles, variously Ellis Spear or Philip Justice, with volumes III & IV having Ellis Spear crossed through and replaced with Philip Justice. Also the stencilled edition number to the verso of the front pastedown, vol. i.

Often considered Burton's most enduring work, the first edition was limited to one thousand copies and printed exclusively for private subscribers. The explicit nature of the text put Burton at risk of prosecution if the work had been published in an open edition, thus the private dissemination of the work, along with the spurious publication location of 'Benares' were the vehicles by which Burton skirted the obscenity laws of Victoria England.

First edition, 16 volumes (10 volumes of the Nights plus 6 volumes Supplemental Nights), 8vo, original cloth banded and lettered in gilt (Nights) and silver (supplemental nights), the latter with joints repaired and spines with the silver completely rubbed away (as often), top edges red, a very good set.

Penzer p. 114-116.