BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir, translator. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. L, 1894. First Nichols and Smithers so-called "The Library edition."
BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890), translator. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night… Reprinted from the Original Edition. Leonard C. Smithers, editor. London: H.S. Nichols & Co., 1894.
12 volumes, 8vo (249 x 155 mm). Half-titles, titles printed in red and black. (Some minor spotting and some marginal toning, offsetting primarily affecting first and last gatherings.) Original dark brown cloth elaborately gilt, sides gilt in Arabic motif, top edges gilt (slight wear to extremities, most hinges starting). Provenance: Alexander Ewing (signatures to a few half-titles, 1894).
First Nichols and Smithers, the so-called "The Library edition," which reprints the original edition of 1885. Smithers was a friend of Burton's and published this edition shortly after Lady Burton’s edition so that Burton’s best-known work could “take its proper place on the library shelf alongside Cervantes and Shakespeare” (Preface, p. viii).