ABSTRACT
There are perhaps a very few texts that can occupy a full semester or even an academic year like the Thousand and One Nights. Antoine Galland's Les Mille et une Nuits: Contes Arabes, has kept the title of the original, but added "Arabian tales" as a subtitle to reach out to specific audiences. The story of Galland's partial manuscript of Contes Arabes, is itself a story of suspense, excitement, forgery, and make-believe. The partial manuscript consists of the tales that were considered the core, which is no more than the only extant version which Galland brought from Aleppo. Galland dedicates the book to Madame la Marquise d'O, dame du Palais de Mme la Duchesse de Bourgogne. While the dedication opts to secure a place for the new production among aristocracy and upper classes, it implies some editorial trimming to ensure that status. He was silent with respect to the Arab belletrists' low opinion of the tales.
