ABSTRACT
In 1852, the explorer and Orientalist, Richard F. Burton, decided to publish ‘a full, complete, unvarnished, uncastrated copy’ of The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night.2 He worked fitfully on his translation from the Arabic until 1885, when it was published under the imprint of the Kama Shastra Society for ‘Private Subscribers only’. In his foreword to the first volume, Burton explained: ‘Our century of translations, popular and vernacular from (Professor Antoine) Galland’s delightful abbreviation and adaption … in no wise represent the eastern original.’3 Burton’s work, consisting of 10 volumes, did not include the story of Aladdin.
