8vo (177 x 117 mm). Half-title, mounted Woodbury-type photographic portrait frontispiece of Burton. (Some toning). 19th-century half dark green morocco gilt, marbled boards, edges marbled, stamp-signed by Birdsall & Son (some minor wear to extremities, joints starting).
FIRST EDITION thus, an expansion of the 1880 A Short Sketch "An Old Oxonian," this edition includes additional material to continue Burton's career from 1880-1886 and was published 4 years before his death. Penzer, pp. 306.
[Bound in before title-page:] BURTON. Autograph letter signed ("Richard F. Burton"), to an unidentified "Sir." Milan, Italy, 23 February 1889. 1 page on a bifolium, in purple ink. Regarding the upcoming publication of Scented Garden: "My Scented Garden is 2 vols 4 guineas - It will not be printed for a year. [And I] put your name down as a subscriber." At the time of his death, Burton was working on a revised translation of The Perfumed Garden (see lot 78), which was to include the missing last chapter removed from the prior translation allegedly due to content on homosexuality and pederasty. Scented Garden was never published because Isabel Burton burned the manuscript soon after Richard's death.