The Book of the Thousand Nights and 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.

[together with, as issued:] Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory by Richard F. Burton. Frontispiece portrait frontispiece and 113 plates by various artists, including Letchford, Lalauze, and Batten, amongst others. Number 693 of 1,000 numbered sets. Seventeen volumes. 8vo. Half red morocco with red cloth covered boards by Bayntun, spines with five single raised bands outlined in blind, second and third panels lettered in gilt within gilt frames, the rest with gilt-stamped decorations, marbled endpapers, top edges in gilt, fore edges untrimmed. [London], Printed by the Burton Club for Private Subscribers Only, n.d. [but circa An excellent set of this fully illustrated and unexpurgated edition of what is probably the most famous of all of Burton's works, the translation of which was completed over a twenty-five year period. The Arabian Nights is one of the world's most famous pieces of literature purporting to recount the thousand and one tales Scheheradze told her master in order to save her life. "Some of these stories, the folk-lore of the East dating back as far as the 8th century AD, were written down in ancient manuscripts; some had simply been handed down orally from century to century" (Lovell). Amongst the tales are the stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. Burton's was not the first translation of the Arabian Nights to appear in English - Edward Lane published a translation in 1840. Yet, those available were greatly sanitised and a translation themselves of Antoine Galland's French edition. Burton's translation restored the sexual content to the work and included an 240 page essay by him which openly discussed the issues. The Obscene Publications Act of 1857 caused Burton's publisher's great concern and as a result drew up a contract which ensured that he became solely liable for any criminal charges made as a result of publication. The work became a bestseller, netting Burton £10000 which enabled him and Isabelle to live out their remaining years in comfort. An excellent set, some faint browning to paperstock, contents otherwise generally clean and unmarked, spines occasionally rubbed and scuffed, ink splash marking to rear cover of Vol. VI.…