The Thousand and One Nights, Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. [3 VOLUMES, COMPLETE]. A New Translation from the Arabic with Copious Notes..

London: Charles Night and Co, 1841. Hardcover. very good. Small quarto (9-1/2" x 6"). 3 vols. (xxxii) 618; (xii) 643, (1); (xii) 763, (1)pp. Index. This is Edward William Lane's translation of the famed Arabian Nights, and is the third known translation of the work into English (see note below). Original half calf with elaborately decorated spines with black and red calf labels, over marbled boards. The 3 volumes are each illustrated with added engraved title pages and taken together have hundreds of finely printed text woodcuts by the artist William Harvey. Each volume has a complete list of illustrations at the front, with the first also having a preface from Lane discussing his translation. There is some minor foxing of the blank endpapers and the outer hinges of the binding are starting but still holding soundly. The marbled boards have some rubbing and the lower edges have some shelfwear.

Note: this work is considered William Harvey's illustration masterpiece.

Further note: This edition predates the more acclaimed version by Sir Richard Burton which did not appear until 1884. Lane, himself an orientalist and Arabic scholar, thought that the famous and foundational translation originally in French (1704-1717) by Antoine Galland, was unsatisfactory, as Galland did not have enough familiarity with Arabic culture and customs to properly translate the work. It was Lane's opinion that Galland had "excessively perverted the work", and so commenced on his own brand new translation of the work from the Arabic of the Bulaq (Cairo edition) which was also cross-referenced with the Calcutta I and Breslau editions. While some have acclaimed this translation, others still see it as bowdlerized.