A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Now Entitled. The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night, with Introduction Explanatory Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and a Terminal Essay Upon the History of the Nights. By Richard F. Burton, Printed by the Easton Press for private subscribers only. Collector's Edition. Bound in Genuine Leather. Norwalk: Connecticut. The Easton Press. Complete 17 Volumes. Volumes 6-11 & 14 are still in shrink wrap. 9.5 x 6.5", 8vos. 

In very good condition. Volumes 6-11 & 14 remain in shrink wrap. Other volumes remain very clean & attractive. Gilt decos bright and clean. All edges gilt. Moire end papers. Bindings tight and intact. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. 

   The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, subtitled A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, is the only complete English language translation of One Thousand and One Nights (the Arabian Nights) to date – a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age (8th−13th centuries) – by the British explorer and Arabist Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890). It stands as the only complete translation of the Macnaghten or Calcutta II edition (Egyptian recension) of the "Arabian Nights". 

   Burton's translation was one of two unabridged and unexpurgated English translations done in the 1880s; the first was by John Payne, under the title The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882–1884, nine volumes). Burton's ten volume version was published almost immediately afterward with a slightly different title. This, along with the fact that Burton closely advised Payne and partially based his books on Payne's, led later to charges of plagiarism. Owing to the sexual imagery in the source texts (which Burton made a special study of, adding extensive footnotes and appendices on Oriental sexual mores) and to the strict Victorian laws on obscene material, both translations were printed as private editions for subscribers only, rather than being published in the usual manner. Burton's original ten volumes were followed by a further seven entitled The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (1886–1888). Burton's 17 volumes, while boasting many prominent admirers, have been criticised for their "archaic language and extravagant idiom" and "obsessive focus on sexuality"; they have even been called an "eccentric ego-trip" and a "highly personal reworking of the text". His voluminous and obscurely detailed notes and appendices have been characterized as “obtrusive, kinky and highly personal”.

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