The True Story of the Novel (1): The Eastern Frame-Story

Chez Chiara: The 1001 Nights

I suspect that one reason why Ian Watt's Rise of the Novel scenario looks so out-of-date is because the novel itself is a very different beast now than in 1957. That was the heyday of the Movement in Britain, with novels by Kingsley Amis, John Wain and Iris Murdoch on the bestseller lists. It was before the "boom" in Latin American writing, before Magic Realism, before the Empire had even really started to write back ...

What I'd like to do in this series of posts, then, is to present a fairly uncontroversial account of the evolution of prose fiction as it seems to have taken place in a number of parallel traditions all over the world.

There's no particular reason to keep you in suspense over what I think I've detected in my desultory reading of Eastern and Western fiction over the past twenty-five years or so (the period I've been interested in the subject). So, here are my findings in a nutshell:

1. Folktales can be patterned into larger fictional entities through more or less complex Frame-story structures:
   • The 1001 Nights / Apuleius' Golden Ass / Boccaccio's Decameron


2. Auto/biographical Writing (both in the form of Confessions and Exemplary Lives) inspires similar tropes in fiction:
   • St. Augustine's Confessions / Xenophon's Cyropaedia / Plutarch's Parallel Lives


3. Anthologies of Poems, with commentary on the events which inspired them, can provide a model for individual Chapter structures:
   • The Tales of Ise / Egil's Saga / Dante's Vita Nuova


4. Epic Narratives in verse set an example for Prose Romances on a smaller or larger scale
   • Aucassin et Nicolette / The French Prose Vulgate of the Arthurian Legends / Malory's Morte d'Arthur


5. Historiography (both Chronicles and more Analytical Accounts) inspires historical sagas and other fictions:
   • Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók & Landnámabók / Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian / Nihongi: The Chronicles of Japan


6. Religious Texts combine history, prophecy and philosophy in complex prose structures which can be adapted for the purposes of Secular Storytelling:
   • Confucius' Analects / Kojiki: Record of Ancient Matters / The Bible


7. Satire and Parody of any and all previous genres encourages ever bolder experimentation in the emerging Modern Novel:
   • Cervantes' Don Quixote / Fielding's Shamela / Sterne's Tristram Shandy

I'd like to look at each of these processes in turn, in terms of one of the seven traditions I outlined in my first post on the subject, concentrating each time on one key text.

So the pattern should look something like this:

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1001 Nights Manuscript



1. The Eastern Frame-story [c.1st millennium BCE to 18th century CE]:
   • Alf Layla wa Layla [1001 Nights] (c.8th-14th century)

   There's a certain limit on the size a folktale can attain. Given it's an essentially oral medium, it tends to lose coherence and interest if carried on for too long. The idea of the frame-story (no. 1 above), allows authors and storytellers (if that distinction can really be made in this context) to carry their stories further. This allows the possibility of ironic reference between different levels of the frame: Scheherazade telling stories about adulterous and destructive women, for instance. It also tends to carry with it, as a corollary, an almost excessive layer of repetitive patterning (repeated threes, sevens, and nines: colour motifs such as the black knight, the red knight, etc.) If it weren't for the revival of many of these techniques in the postcolonial and postmodern novel, one might have seen these as characteristics of an embryonic stage of the novel's development. That did, in fact, use to be the critical orthodoxy on the subject. I don't think that view is tenable any longer, though.




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Apuleius: The Golden Ass



2. The Greek and Roman Novel [c.1st century BCE to 4th century CE]:
   • Apuleius: The Golden Ass (c.125–c.180)

   Who is the narrator of the Asinus Aureus [Golden Ass]? Given the hero is called Lucius, and its author was called Lucius Apuleius (the two also share a hometown: Madaurus in Algeria), it's not surprising that many of its early readers saw it as essentially autobiographical (no.2 above) - St. Augustine among them. In fact, it's said to have been one of the major stylistic influences on his Confessions, composed in the late 4th century. More modern readings have pointed out the immense complexity and sophistication of Apuleius' narrative techniques. Far from a piece of naive picaresque, the novel can be read as satire, religious allegory, postmodern game-playing, or - yes - an apology for the life of one who was himself accused of black magic during his lifetime. Apuleius himself seems to have more in common with Borges and Nabokov than most of the prose writers in the intervening two millennia, in fact.


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Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Monogatari (1987)



3. The Japanese Monogatari [c.9th-18th century CE]:
   • Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Monogatari [The Tale of Genji] (c.1000)

   Like all of the world's great masterpieces, Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji can be approached from a lot of different directions, and read in a lot of different ways. She herself admits (in her diary) the influence of earlier historical writing on hers (or, rather, quotes a remark by the Emperor to that effect). The fact that each individual chapter - especially initially - is such an exercise in mood and atmosphere, encourages one to see the influence of poetry anthologies (no. 3 above) such as the earlier Tales of Ise on her conception of narrative. Interestingly, this same method resulted in Melville's last extended prose work, Billy Budd. It began as the headnote to a poem, and grew from there.


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Malory: Morte D'Arthur (1485)



4. The Medieval and Renaissance Romance [c.12th-16th century CE]:
   • Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte d'Arthur (1485)

   The discovery of the Winchester Ms. of Malory in the 1930s has enabled us to understand a lot more about his methods of composition. Essentially he drew from a pre-existing body of romance-writing (no. 4 above) in French - composed initially in verse (by the likes of Chrétien de Troyes), but subsequently in prose (by among others, the anonymous compilers of the prose Lancelot and its various successors). The pruning and condensation he used to simplify his originals transcended mere translation, however. Whle his editor, Caxton, had a good deal to do with our idea of him as the author of a single book in many parts, rather than a series of inter-related prose romances, the result is one of the most influential pieces of fiction ever composed.


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Njals saga (c.1300)



5. The Sagas of Icelanders [c.13th-14th century CE]:
   • Brennu-Njáls saga [Njal's Saga] (late 13th century)

   Just how historical the Icelandic family sagas, or sagas of Icelanders, really are, was a subject of controversy for a long time. The initial assumption, by their first readers in Europe, was that they were fairly straight records of particular crimes and feuds in the era of the first settlement of the island. Subsequent research, though (notably in Sigurður Nordal's 1940 book on Hrafnkel's Saga) has pointed out a considerable number of historical inaccuracies in their narratives. They should, it is now argued by the likes of Hermann Pálsson (1988), be seen as sophisticated works of creative fiction based on regional history (no. 5 above), rather than being dismissed as mere transcripts of oral tradition. The more closely they are studied, in fact, the more complex and artful their narrative techniques turn out to be.


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Cao Xue Qin: The Red Chamber Dream (c.1780)



6. The Chinese Novel [c.14th-18th century CE]:
   • Cao Xueqin: Hóng Lóu Mèng [The Red Chamber Dream] (late 18th century)

   The peculiarities of the classic Chinese novel - the immense length of most of them; the intense care with which each, essentially stand-alone, chapter is constructed - are familiar to most readers who've adventured into even one of them. The transition from historiography to fiction in China (as in Iceland) is an obvious one, hence one which has often been pointed out. A composition as intricate and self-conscious as the Hung Lou Meng [Red Chamber Dream - also knows as "The Story of the Stone"] draws its inspiration from many sources, however. On the one hand, the author of the preface sees it as largely autobiographical. Its weird mixture of supernatural and realist writing, though, tends to align it with earlier fictions such as the Journey to the West or the Ch'in P'ing Mei. I've argued above (no. 6) that one might see analogies with this genre-bending in certain religious narratives, both Eastern and Western. Whether the pious allegories at the end of this huge book are really meant to be taken straight, or were even composed by the original author, remain matters of controversy, however.


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Gustave Doré: Don Quixote (1863)



7. The Modern Novel [c.17th century CE to the present]:
   • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (1605 & 1615)

   What can one say about Don Quixote that hasn't already been said a thousand times? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out. Given that most readers don't persevere past the first few chapters, and very few make it even as far as the end of part one, let alone into the intricacies of part two, I think it's fair to say that the reason why it's been quite so influential on the evolution of the European novel is not really so obvious as it might be. A satire, yes (no. 7 above), but a satire of a genre that Cervantes actually returned to after finishing his novel (his last work, Persiles y Sigismunda (1617) is as romantic and absurd as any of the chivalric romances he abuses in the Quixote). Establishing the contention that Cervantes, rather than Richardson (or even Defoe) is the best point of departure for a fuller comprehension the modern novel is clearly an area where a great deal of work remains to be done.

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So there you have it: that's the plan. Given this blog is mostly dedicated to recording my own adventures among books (and particularly the ins and outs of my own library), I'll try to illustrate each of these points with the readings that have inspired it as I go along:

Let's start, then, In India. Whether or not nineteenth-century scholars were correct in attributing the invention of virtually everything to the ancient Sanskrit-speaking Aryan cultures of Central Asia and (later) India is hard to say at this date. What is certain is that these are among the oldest works of creative prose fiction in existence:

Panchatantra Relief (Java)

India:

Authors & Works: (chronological)

1. The Jātaka Tales (c.4th century BCE)
2. The Pañcatantra (c.3rd century BCE)
3. Somadeva (c.11th century)
4. Narayana (c.12th century)
5. The Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā (c.12th century)
6. Śivadāsa (c.12th-14th century)

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The Jātaka Tales (c.4th century BCE)


1. Rhys Davids, T. W. trans. Buddhist Birth-Stories (Jātaka Tales): The Commentarial Introduction Entitled Nidāna-Kathā, The Story of the Lineage. 1880. Broadway Translations. London & New York: Routledge & Dutton, 1925.


2. Cowell, E. B., ed. The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Trans. R. Chambers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis & R. A. Neil, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, E. B. Cowell & W. H. D. Rouse. 6 vols in 3. 1895-1907. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1990.

The Panchatantra [Pañcatantra] (c.3rd century BCE)


3. Ryder, Arthur W., trans. The Panchatantra. 1925. Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1964.


4. Edgerton, Franklin, trans. The Panchatantra. London: Allen & Unwin, 1965.


5. Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Pañcatantra: The Book of India’s Folk Wisdom. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Somadeva (c.11th century)


6. Penzer, N. M., ed. The Ocean of Story: Being C. H. Tawney’s Translation of Somadeva’s Kathā Sarit Sāgara (or Ocean of Streams of Story). 1880-84. 10 vols. 1924. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968.


7. Somadeva. Tales from the Kathāsaritsāgara. Trans. Arshia Sattar. Foreword by Wendy Doniger. 1994. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.


8. Somadeva. Océan des rivières de contes. Ed. Nalini Balbir, with Mildrède Besnard, Lucien Billoux, Sylvain Brocquet, Colette Caillat, Christine Chojnacki, Jean Fezas & Jean-Pierre Osier. Traduction des ‘Contes du Vampire’ par Louis & Marie-Simone Renou, 1963. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 438. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Narayana (c.12th century)


9. Chandiramani, G. L., trans. The Hitopadesha: An Ancient Fabled Classic. 1995. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 1999.

The Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā [Thirty-two Tales of the Throne] (c.12th century)


10. Edgerton, Franklin, ed. & trans. Vikrama’s Adventures, or the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne. Harvard Oriental Series, ed. Charles Rockwell Lanman, 26 & 27. 1926. 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1993.


11. Haksar, A. N. D., trans. Simhāsana Dvātrimśikā: Thirty-two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998.


12. Bhoothalingam, Mathuram. Stories of Vikramaditya. Illustrated by Jomraj. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1982.

Śivadāsa (c.12th-14th century)


13. [Burton, Richard F. Vikram and the Vampire, or Tales of Hindu Devilry. 1870. Memorial Edition. Ed. Isabel Burton. London: Thylston & Edwards, 1893.]


14. Śivadāsa. The Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie: Vetālapañćavinśati. Trans. Chandra Rajan. 1995. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


15. Alphonso-Karkala, John B., trans. An Anthology of Indian Literature. A Pelican Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.


16. Beck, Brenda E. F., Peter J. Claus, Praphulladata Goswami, & Jawaharlal Handoo, ed. Folktales of India. Foreword by A. K. Ramanujan. Folktales of the World, ed. Richard M. Dorson. 1987. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1989.


17. Keith, A. Berriedale. A History of Sanskrit Literature. 1920. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.


18. Ramanujan, A. K. ed. Folktales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-two Languages. 1991. The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library. Pantheon Books. New York: Random House, Inc., 1993.


19. Souza, Eunice de. 101 Folktales from India. Illustrated by Sujata Singh. A Puffin Book. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2004.

Most of these works are very hard to date. Somadeva, author of the Ocean of the Streams of Story (which I've written about here), describes a most complicated, semi-mythical genesis for his work. It's certainly based on a much older version, but just how old it is, is almost impossible to establish.

The beast-fables of the Panchatantra have travelled across the world, but disentangling every stage of their journey at this late date is, once again, an almost unimaginably complex task.

The fact that the Jātaka tales of Buddha's early incarnations may predate even these early collections of folktales reminds me to acknowledge that all seven of the lines of transmission from other genres to extended prose fiction (what we might plausibly refer to as roads towards the Novel) can exist in any one of the traditions under examination here. It's only for convenience's sake that I've chosen to isolate one technique per tradition, in fact. The influence of religious texts on Sanskrit fiction is clearly omnipresence, however "secular" the motivations (sex, money, prestige) of most of the actual protagonists of the tales may be.

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From India we move to Persia (or Iran, if you prefer). The main reason for this is because this is supposed to have been the route of transmission for the frame-tale tradition: from India to Persia and thence into the Arabian Middle East.

Certainly the original version of the Thousand and One Nights is said to have been written in Persian. Unfortunately this Hazār Afsān [Thousand Stories] is no longer extant, but the fact that all the major characters in the frame story (Shahryār, Shahrazad and Dunyazad) have Persian names, and are located historically in Pre-Islamic Persia, during the era of the Sassanids (224 to 651 AD), makes this genealogy fruitless to question:

Baysunghur: Shahnameh (1430)

Persia:

Authors & Works: (chronological)

1. Ferdowsi (940-1020)
2. Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)
3. Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209)
4. Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (1145-1221)
5. Rumi (1207-1273)
6. Saʿdī (1210-1291)
7. Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini (c. 13th century

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Hakīm Abul-Qāsim Ferdowsī Tūsī (940-1021)


1. Ferdowsi. The Epic of the Kings: Shah-Nama, the National Epic of Persia. Trans. Reuben Levy. 1967. Rev. Amin Banani. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)


2. Avery, Peter, & John Heath-Stubbs, trans. The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam. 1979. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.


3. Fitzgerald, Edward, trans. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Ed. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. 1909. London: A. & C. Black., 1973.


4. Fitzgerald, Edward, trans. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Six Plays of Calderon. Everyman’s Library 819. 1928. London & New York: J. M. Dent & E. P. Dutton, 1948.


5. Fitzgerald, Edward. Selected Works. Ed. Joanna Richardson. The Reynard Library. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962.


6. Graves, Robert, & Omar Ali-Shah, trans. The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayaam: A New Translation with Critical Commentaries. 1967. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209)


7. Ganjavi, Nizami. Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance. 1197. Trans. Julie Scott Meisami. World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (1145-1221)


8. Attar, Farid ud-Din. The Conference of the Birds. Trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.


9. Attar, Farid ud-Din. The Conference of the Birds, Mantiq ut-Tair: A Philosophical Religious Poem in Prose - Rendered into English from the Literal and Complete French Translation of Garcin de Tassy. Trans. C. S. Nott. 1954. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–1273)


10. Rumi, Jalal al-Din. Tales from the Masnavi. Trans. A. J. Arberry. 1961. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968.


11. Rumi, Jalal al-Din. Selected Poems. Trans. Coleman Banks, with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry & Reynold Nicholson. As 'The Essential Rumi', 1995. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2004.

Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, Saadi Shirazi [(1210-1291)


12. Burton, R. F., trans [Edward Retnisak]. Tales from the Gulistân, or Rose-Garden of the Sheikh Sa’di of Shirâz. 1888. London: Philip Allen, 1928.


13. Sadi. Gulistan or Flower-Garden. Trans. James Ross. Ed. Charles Sayle. London: Walter Scott, n.d. [c.1890].

Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini (c. 13th century)


14. Varâvini, Sa’d al-Dîn. Contes du Prince Marzbân. 1220. Trans. Marie-Hélène Ponroy. Connaissance de l’Orient. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


15. Arberry, A. J., ed. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Other Persian Poems: An Anthology of Verse Translations. Everyman’s Library 1996. London & New York: Dent & Dutton, 1954.


16. Dole, Nathan Haskell, & Belle M. Walker, eds. The Persian Poets. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1901.


17. Ernst, Paul, ed. Erzählungen aus tausendundein Tag; Vermehrt um andere Morgenländische Geschichten. Trans. Felix Paul Greve and Paul Hansmann. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 1987.


18. Fehse, Willi, ed. The Thousand and One Days. Trans. Anthea Bell. London: Abelard-Schumann, 1971.


19. Levy, Reuben, trans. The Three Dervishes and other Persian Tales and Legends. Oxford: Humphrey Milford, 1923.


20. McCarthy, J., trans. The Thousand and One Days: Persian Tales. 2 vols. London: Chatto, 1892.


21. Olcott, Frances Jenkins. Tales of the Persian Genii. Illustrated by Willy Pogany. London: George G. Harrap & Company Limited, 1919.


22. Pétis de la Croix, ed. The Persian and Turkish Tales, compleat. Trans. Dr. King. 2 vols. London: Richard Ware, 1714.


23. Safâ, Z., ed. Anthologie de la poésie persane: XIe-XXe siècle. Trans. G. Lazard, R. Lescot & H. Massé. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1964.

I've included poets as well as prose-writers here, as some of the crucial works in the frame-story tradition are in verse rather than prose (like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). You'll observe that they all postdate the era of the original transmission of the 1001 Nights by quite some considerable margin. There are some fascinating and influential works of fiction here, though: Rumi's Gulistan (1259), for instance, or Varavini's Marzubannama (1220).

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Which brings us, at long last, to the Nights themselves. I've had a great deal to say about them on this blog already (at various times). And for basic information about them I can't do better than refer you to my blog on the subject: Scheherazade's Web

Philip Cole: 1001 Nights (1952)

The 1001 Nights:

Categories: (chronological)

1. Texts
2. Major Translations:
   1. Antoine Galland [1704-1717] (French)
   2. Dom Dennis Chavis & M. Cazotte [1788-89] (French)
   3. Max. Habicht, Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall [1824-25] (German)
   4. Gustav Weil [4 vols: 1837-41] (German)
   5. Edward William Lane [1839-40] (English)
   6. John Payne [1882-89] (English)
   7. Richard F. Burton [1885-88] (English)
   8. Max Henning [24 vols: 1895-97] (German)
   9. Andrew Lang [1898] (English)
   10. Dr. J. C. Mardrus [1899-1904] (French)
   11. Cary von Karwath [1906-14] (German)
   12. Laurence Housman [1907-14] (English)
   13. Enno Littmann [1921-28] (German)
   14. M. A. Salier [1929-36] (Russian)
   15. Francesco Gabrieli [1948] (Italian)
   16. A. J. Arberry [1953] (English)
   17. N. J. Dawood [1954-57] (English)
   18. René R. Khawam [1965-67 & 1985-88] (French)
   19. Felix Tauer [1928-34] (Czech & German)
   20. Husain Haddawy [1990-95] (English)
   21. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel [1991-2001 & 2005-7] (French)
   22. Malcolm & Ursula Lyons [2008] (English)
3. Analogous Collections
4. Imitations & Tributes
5. Anthologies & Secondary Literature

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Texts:


1. Habicht, Maximilian, & M. H. L. Fleischer, ed. Tausend und Eine Nacht Arabisch. Nach einer Handschrift aus Tunis. 12 vols. Breslau, 1825-43.


2. Alf Laylah wa Laylah. 2 vols. Bulaq, A.H. 1251 [= 1835].


3. Macnaghten, W. H., ed. The Alif Laila, or Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Commonly Known as ‘The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments;’ Now, for the First Time, Published Complete in the Original Arabic, from an Egyptian Manuscript Brought to India by the Late Major Turner Macan, Editor of the Shah-Nameh. 4 vols. Calcutta: W. Thacker, 1839-42.


4. Zotenberg, Hermann. Histoire d’Alâ al-Din ou La Lampe Merveilleuse: Texte Arabe publié avec une notice sur quelques manuscrits des Mille et une nuits. Paris; Imprimerie Nationale, 1888.


5. Alph Laylé Wa Laylé. 4 vols. Beirut: Al-Maktaba Al-Thakafiyat, A.H. 1401 [= 1981].



Major Translations:


Antoine Galland [12 vols: 1704-1717] (French)


6. Galland, Antoine, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes traduits par Galland. 12 vols. 1704-17. Ed. Gaston Picard. 2 vols. 1960. Paris: Garnier, 1975.


7. Galland, Antoine, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes arabes. 12 vols. 1704-17. Ed. Jean Gaulmier. 3 vols. 1965. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1990, 1985, 1991.


8. Arabian Nights Entertainments: Consisting of One Thousand and One Stories, Told by the Sultaness of the Indies, to divert the Sultan from the Execution of a bloody Vow he had made to marry a Lady every day, and have her cut off next Morning, to avenge himself for the Disloyalty of his first Sultaness, &c. Containing a better Account of the Customs, Manners, and Religion of the Eastern Nations, viz. Tartars, Persians, and Indians, than is to be met with in any Author hitherto published. Translated into French from the Arabian Mss. by M. Galland of the Royal Academy, and now done into English from the last Paris Edition. London: Andrew Bell, 1706-17. 16th ed. 4 vols. London & Edinburgh: C. Elliot, 1781.


9. Forster, Edward, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. 1812. Rev. G. Moir Bussey. London: J. J. Chidley, 1846.


10. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. [Trans. Antoine Galland]. Sir John Lubbock’s Hundred Books 67. London: Routledge, 1893.


11. Mack, Robert L., ed. Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.


Dom Dennis Chavis & M. Cazotte [4 vols: 1788-89] (French)


12. Chavis, Dom, and M. Cazotte, trans. La Suite des Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes. Cabinet des Fées 38-41. 4 vols. Geneva: Barde & Manget, 1788-89.


Max. Habicht, Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall [15 vols: 1824-25] (German)


13. Habicht, Max., Fr. H. von der Hagen, and Carl Schall, trans. Tausend und Eine Nacht, Arabische Erzählungen. 1824-25. Ed. Karl Martin Schiller. 12 vols. Leipzig: F. W. Hendel, 1926.


Gustav Weil [4 vols: 1837-41] (German)


14. Weil, Gustav, trans. Tausendundeine Nacht. 1837-41. Ed. Inge Dreecken. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: R. Löwit, n.d. [c. 1960s]


15. Weil, Gustav, trans. Liebesgeschichten aus Tausendundeiner Nacht, übertragen aus dem arabischen Urtext von Gustav Weil: Mit Holzstichen der Ausgabe von 1865. 1837-41. München: Delphin Verlag, 1987.


Edward William Lane [3 vols: 1839-40] (English)


16. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights, Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. A New Translation from the Arabic, with Copious Notes. 3 vols. London: Charles Knight, 1839-41.


17. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights; Commonly Called The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Ed. Edward Stanley Poole. 3 vols. 1859. London: Chatto, 1912.


18. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Ed. Stanley Lane-Poole. 4 vols. 1906. Bohn’s Popular Library. London: G. Bell, 1925.


19. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments or The Thousand and One Nights: The Complete, Original Translation of Edward William Lane, with the Translator’s Complete, Original Notes and Commentaries on the Text. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1927.


20. Lane, Edward William, trans. The Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Wood Engravings from Original Designs by William Harvey. London: Chatto and Windus, 1930.


John Payne [13 vols: 1882-89] (English)


21. Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic. 9 vols. London: Villon Society, 1882-84.


22. Payne, John, trans. Tales from the Arabic of the Breslau and Calcutta (1814-’18) Editions of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Not Occurring in the Other Printed Texts of the Work; Now First Done into English. 3 vols. London: Villon Society, 1884.


23. John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein ul Asnam and the King of the Jinn; two stories done into English from the recently discovered Arabic text. London: Villon Society, 1889.


24. Payne, John, trans. The Portable Arabian Nights. 1882-1884. Ed. Joseph Campbell. 1952. New York: The Viking Press, 1963.


25. Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. 1882-1884. Publisher's Note by Steven Moore. 3 vols. Ann Arbor, MI: Borders Classics, 2007.


Richard F. Burton [16 vols: 1885-88] (English)


26. Burton, Richard F, trans. A Plain and Literal Translation of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, Now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: With Introduction, Explanatory Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and a Terminal Essay upon the History of the Nights. 10 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1885. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d.


27. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 6 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1886-88. 7 vols. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d.


28. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 3 vols. New York: The Heritage Press, 1934.


29. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 10 vols. U.S.A.: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1940s].


30. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 1886-88. 6 vols. U.S.A..: The Burton Club, n.d. [c. 1940s].


31. Zipes, Jack, ed. Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Signet Classic. New York: Penguin, 1991.


32. Zipes, Jack, ed. Arabian Nights, Volume II: More Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Sir Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Signet Classic. New York: New American Library, 1999.


Max Henning [24 vols: 1895-97] (German)


33. Henning, Max, trans. Tausend und eine Nacht. 1895-97. Ed. Hans W. Fischer. Berlin & Darmstadt: Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 1957.


Andrew Lang [1 vol: 1898] (English)


34. Lang, Andrew, ed. Tales from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. 1898. London: Wordsworth Classics, 1993.


Dr. J. C. Mardrus [16 vols: 1899-1904] (French)


35. Mardrus, Dr. J. C., trans. Le Livre des Mille et une Nuits. 16 vols. Paris: Édition de la Revue blanche, 1899-1904. Ed. Marc Fumaroli. 2 vols. Paris: Laffont, 1989.


36. Mathers, Edward Powys, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Rendered from the Literal and Complete Version of Dr. J. C. Mardrus; and Collated with Other Sources. 1923. 8 vols. London: The Casanova Society, 1929.


37. Mathers, E. Powys. Sung to Shahryar: Poems from the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. London: The Casanova Society, 1925.


38. Mathers, E. Powys, trans. Arabian Love Tales: Being Romances Drawn from the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Rendered into English from the Literal French Translation of Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Illustrated by Lettice Sandford. London: The Folio Society, 1949.


39. Mathers, E. Powys, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Rendered into English from the Literal and Complete French Translation of Dr. J. C. Mardrus. 4 vols. 1949. 2nd ed. 1964. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.


Cary von Karwath [19 vols: 1906-14] (German)


40. Karwath, Cary Von, trans. 1001 Nacht: Vollständige Ausgabe in 18 Taschenbüchern mit einem Zusatzband: Nach dem arabischen Urtext angeordnet und übertragen von Cary von Karwath. 1906-14. 19 vols. München: Goldmann Verlag, 1987.


Laurence Housman [4 vols: 1907-14] (English)


41. Housman, Laurence. Stories from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. 1907. New York: Doran, n.d.


42. Housman, Laurence. Sindbad the Sailor and Other Stories from the Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. 1907. Weathervane Books. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978.


Enno Littmann [6 vols: 1921-28] (German)


43. Littmann, Enno, trans. Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Vollständige deutsche Ausgabe in zwölf Teilbänden zum ersten mal nach dem arabischen Urtext der Calcuttaer Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1839 übertragen von Enno Littmann. 1921-28. 2nd ed. 1953. 6 vols in 12. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1976.


44. Littmann, Enno, trans. Geschichten der Liebe aus den 1001 Nächten: Aus dem arabischen Urtext übertragen von Enno Littmann. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1973.


M. A. Salier [8 vols: 1929-36] (Russian)


45. Salier, M. A., trans. Тысяча и Одна Ночь. 1929-36. 6 vols. Санкт-Петербург: «Кристалл», 2000.


Francesco Gabrieli [4 vols: 1948] (Italian)


46. Gabrieli, Francesco, ed. Le mille e una notte: Prima versione integrale dall’arabo. Trans. Francesco Gabrieli, Antonio Cesaro, Constantino Pansera, Umberto Rizzitano and Virginia Vacca. 1948. Gli struzzi 35. 4 vols. Torino: Einaudi, 1972.


47. Faccioli, Emilio, ed. Le mille e una notte: Scelta di racconti. Dall’edizione integrale diretta da Francesco Gabrieli. Letture per la Scuola Media 56. Torino: Einaudi, 1980.


A. J. Arberry [1 vol: 1953] (English)


48. Arberry, A. J., trans. Scheherazade: Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. London: Allen and Unwin, 1953.


N. J. Dawood [2 vols: 1954-57] (English)


49. Dawood, N. J., trans. The Thousand and One Nights: The Hunchback, Sindbad, and Other Tales. Penguin 1001. 1954. Penguin Classics L64. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.


50. Dawood, N. J., trans. Aladdin and Other Tales from The Thousand and One Nights. Penguin Classics L71. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.


51. Dawood, N. J., trans. Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. 1954-57. 2nd ed. 1973. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.


René R. Khawam [7 vols: 1965-67 & 1985-88] (French)


52. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Mille et une nuits. Traduction Nouvelle et Complète faite sur les Manuscrits par René R. Khawam. 4 Vols. Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 1965-67.


53. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Mille et une nuits. 4 vols. 1965-67. 2nd ed. 1986. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1989.


54. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Marin. Paris: Phébus, 1985.


55. Khawam, René R., trans. Les Aventures de Sindbad le Terrien. Paris: Phébus, 1986.


56. Khawam, René R., trans. Le Roman d’Aladin. Paris: Phébus, 1988.


Felix Tauer [8 vols: 1928-34] (Czech & German)


57. Tauer, Felix, trans. Tisíc a Jedna Noc. 1928-34. 5 vols. 1973. Praha: Ikar, 2001.


58. Tauer, Felix, trans. Erotische Geschichten aus den tausendundein Nächten: Aus dem arabischen Urtext der Wortley Montague-Handschrift übertragen und herausgegeben von Felix Tauer. 1966. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1983.


59. Tauer, Felix, trans. Neue Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Die in anderen Versionen von »1001 Nacht« nicht enthaltenen Geschichten der Wortley-Montague-Handschrift der Oxforder Bodleian Library; Aus dem arabischen Urtext vollständig übertragen und erläutert von Felix Tauer. 2 vols. 1982. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1989.


Husain Haddawy [2 vols: 1990-95] (English)


60. Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights: Based on the Text of the Fourteenth-Century Syrian Manuscript edited by Muhsin Mahdi. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990.


61. Haddawy, Husain, trans. The Arabian Nights II: Sindbad and Other Popular Stories. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995.


62. Heller-Roazen, Daniel, ed. The Arabian Nights. The Husain Haddaway Translation Based on the Text Edited by Muhsin Mahdi: Contexts, Criticism. 1990 & 1995. A Norton Critical Edition. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.


Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel [7 vols: 1991-2001 & 2005-7] (French)


63. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis. Trans. Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, André Miquel & Touhami Bencheikh. 2 vols. Folio 2256-57. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.


64. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed & trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis III. Folio 2775. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.


65. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, ed & trans. Sindbâd de la mer et autres contes des Mille et Une Nuits: Contes choisis IV. Folio 3581. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.


66. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard, 2005-7.


Malcolm & Ursula Lyons [3 vols: 2008] (English)


67. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. Penguin Classics Hardback. London: Penguin, 2008.


68. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. Three Tales from The Arabian Nights. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2008.


69. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 1: Nights 1 to 294. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.


70. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 2: Nights 295 to 719. Introduced & Annotated by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.


71. Lyons, Malcolm & Ursula, trans. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Volume 3: Nights 719 to 1001. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 3 vols. 2008. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2010.



Analogous Collections:


72. Benalmocaffa, Abdalá. Calila y Dimna. Introducción, traducción y notas de Marcelino Villegas. Libro de Bolsillo: Clásicos 1512. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991.


73. Clerk, Mrs. Godfrey, trans. Ilâm-en-Nâs. Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Kalîfahs. London: Henry S. King, 1873.


74. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, M., trans. Les Cent et une Nuits. 1911. Bibliothèque Arabe. Paris: Sinbad, 1982.


75. Kalila and Dimna: Selected Fables of Bidpai. Retold by Ramsay Wood. Introduction by Doris Lessing. 1980. London: Granada, 1982.


76. Lewis, Geoffrey, trans. The Book of Dede Korkut. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974.


77. Mas'ūdī. From The Meadows of Gold. Trans. Paul Lunde & Caroline Stone. Penguin Great Journeys, 2. London: Penguin, 2007.


78. Richmond, Diana. ’Antar and ’Abla, A Bedouin Romance: Rewritten and Arranged by Diana Richmond. London: Quartet Books, 1978.


79. Rosen, Georg, trans. Tutti-Nameh: Das Papageienbuch. Aus der türkischen Fassung übertragen von Georg Rosen. Stuttgart: Europäischer Buchklub, 1957.


80. Shah, Amina, trans. The Assemblies of Al-Hariri: Fifty Encounters with the Shaykh Abu Zayd of Seruj. London: The Octagon Press, 1980.



Imitations & Tributes:


81. Gueullette, Thomas. Les Mille et Un Quarts d’heure. 1785. Cabinet des Fées 4. 2 vols. Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1994.


82. Lemirre, Elisabeth, ed. La Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées. 1785. Cabinet des Fées 3. 1988. Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1994.


83. Manuel, Don Juan. Count Lucanor, or The Fifty Pleasant Tales of Patronio. 1335. Trans James York. Broadway translations. London & New York: George Routledge & E. P. Dutton, n.d.



Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


84. Abou-Hussein, Hiam & Charles Pellat. Cheherazade: Personage Littéraire. Algiers: Société Nationale d’Édition et de Diffusion, 1976.


85. Ali, Muhsin Jassim. Scheherazade in England: A Study of Nineteenth-Century English Criticism of the Arabian Nights. Washington: Three Continents Press, 1981.


86. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine. Les Mille et une Nuits ou la parole prisonnière. Bibliothèque des Idées. Paris: Gallimard, 1988.


87. Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, Claude Bremond and André Miquel. Mille et un Contes de la Nuit. Bibliothèque des Idées. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.


88. Campbell, Kay Hardy, Ferial J. Ghazoul, Andras Hamori, Muhsin Mahdi, Christopher M. Murphy, & Sandra Naddaff. The 1001 Nights: Critical Essays and Annotated Bibliography. Mundus Arabicus 3. Cambridge, Mass.: Dar Mahjar, 1983.


89. Caracciolo, Peter L., ed. The Arabian Nights in English Literature: Studies in the Reception of The Thousand and One Nights into British Culture. London: Macmillan, 1988.


90. Chauvin, Victor. La Récension Égyptienne des Mille et Une Nuits. Bruxelles: Office de Publicité / Société Belge de Librairie, 1899.


91. Chauvin, Victor. Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux arabes publiés dans l’Europe chrétienne de 1810 à 1885. 12 vols. Liège: H. Vaillant-Carmanne, Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1892-1922.


92. Chebel, Malek. Psychanalyse des Mille et Une Nuits. 1996. Petite Bibliothèque Payot. Paris: Editions Payot & Rivages, 2002.


93. Eliséef, Nikita. Thèmes et motifs des Mille et Une Nuits: Essai de Classification. Beirut: Institut Français de Damas, 1949.


94. Gerhardt, Mia I. The Art of Story-Telling: A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nights. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963.


95. Ghazoul, Ferial Jabouri. The Arabian Nights: A Structural Analysis. Cairo: Cairo Associated Institution for the Study and Presentation of Arab Cultural Values, 1980.


96. Ghazoul, Ferial J. Nocturnal Poetics: The Arabian Nights in Comparative Context. Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 1996.


97. Glubb, John Bagot. Haroon al Rasheed and the Great Abbasids. London: Hodder, 1976.


98. Hamori, Andras. On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature. 1974. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1975.


99. Irwin, Robert. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. London: Allen Lane, 1994.


100. Kilito, Abdelfattah. L’oeil et l’aiguille: Essai sur “les mille et une nuits.” Textes à l’appui: série islam et société. Paris: Editions la Découverte, 1992.


101. Kritzeck, James, ed. Anthology of Islamic Literature: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1964


102. Lahy-Hollebecque, Marie. Schéhérazade ou L’éducation d’un Roi. 1927. Collection Destins de Femmes. Paris: Pardès, 1987.


103. Lane, E. W. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. 1836. Ed. E. Stanley Poole. Everyman’s Library 315. London: Dent, New York: Dutton, 1963.


104. Larzul, Sylvette. Les Traductions Françaises des Mille et Une Nuits: Études des versions Galland, Trébutien et Mardrus. Précédée de “Traditions, traductions, trahisons,” par Claude Bremond. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996.


105. Lichtenstadtler, Ilse. Introduction to Classical Arabic Literature, with Selections from representative Works in English Translation. 1974. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.


106. Lynch, Enrique. La Lección de Sheherazade. Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 1987.


107. Mahdi, Muhsin. The Thousand and One Nights. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995.


108. Marzolph, Ulrich, & Richard van Leeuwen, with the assistance of Hassan Wassouf, ed. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004.


109. Marzolph, Ulrich, ed. The Arabian Nights Reader. Series in Fairy-Tale Studies. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2006.


110. Mathers, Edward Powys, trans. The Anthology of Eastern Love. 12 vols in 4. London: John Rodker, 1927-30.


111. May, Georges. Les Mille et une nuits d’Antoine Galland, ou le chef d’oeuvre invisible. Paris: P.U.F., 1986.]


112. Naddaff, Sandra. Arabesque: Narrative Structure and the Aesthetics of Repetition in the 1001 Nights. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1991.


113. Nicholson, Reynold A. A Literary History of the Arabs. 1907. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969.


114. Pinault, David. Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights. Studies in Arabic Literature 15. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992.


115. Ranelagh, E. J. The Past We Share: The Near Eastern Ancestry of Western Folk Literature. London: Quartet, 1979.


116. Shah, Idries, ed. World Tales: the Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places. 1979. London: Octagon P, 1991.


117. Ullah, Najib. Islamic Literature: An Introductory History with Selections. New York: Washington Square P, 1963.


118. Weber, Edgard. Imaginaire Arabe et Contes Erotiques. Collection Comprendre le Moyen-Orient. Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1990.


119. Yohanna, John D., ed. A Treasury of Asian Literature. Readers Union. 1958. London: Phoenix House, 1960.

As you can see, I've been collecting books in this area for quite some time. The above list of major translations doesn't include all the retellings and abridgements I own (though if you'd like to check them out, they're all listed here. I think it includes all the major translations in most European languages - though with the notable exception of the various versions in Spanish: Vicente Blasco Ibañez's translation of Mardrus (1923), Rafael Cansinos-Assens (1960), Juan Vernet (1964-67) and Juan A. G. Larraya & Leonor Martínez Martín (1965).

The essential thing to note about them is that there are two major manuscript traditions: the Syrian (exemplified by Galland, and codified in Muhsin Mahdi's 1984 critical edition of the 14th century Ms. Galland). The best version of this in English is Husain Haddawy's 1990 translation of Mahdi. It's distinguished by intricacy and literary complexity, notably in such stories as "The Tale of the Hunchback" or "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad."

The second major manuscript tradition, the Egyptian (generally known as ZER: for "Zotenberg's Egyptian Recension) is much later, reaching its final elaboration in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century, before being fixed in its present form by the 1835 Bulaq edition of the Arabic text. This is much longer and more compendious than the Syrian tradition, but appears to have been created largely to meet European demands for a "complete" text of the 1001 Nights, already well known from Galland's translation. The most complete translation of this version is Burton's, but probably the most convenient to read is Malcolm and Ursula Lyon's 2008 Penguin Classics edition.

There are many excellent critical books on the Nights, as you can see from the list above. If I had to recommend just one, though, it would be Andras Hamori's 1974 On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature, for its brilliantly innovative analysis of the narrative complexity of such stories as "The City of Brass" and (once again) "The Three Ladies of Baghdad." There's much useful information (and good bibliographies) in Peter L. Caracciolo's The Arabian Nights in English Literature: Studies in the Reception of The Thousand and One Nights into British Culture (1988), though.

•

Peter L. Caracciolo: The Arabian Nights in English Literature (1988)

More Notes on the Nights (1): Richard F. Burton

[Sir Frederick Leighton: Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)]

I guess this is more or less the image the words "Arabian Nights" convey - gorgeous, scantily clad girls and muscular warriors; kings and commoners; Imams and slaves:

[John Austen (c.1922)]


[Pier Paolo Pasolini (1974)]


[David Nakayama (2011)]

Certainly Richard F. Burton was no stranger to this orientalising tendency. His travel books are full of racist rantings about the laziness and general hopelessness of Blacks and Arabs. But then, he wasn't much more complimentary about Oxford Dons, Colonial Office officials, or any other ignoramuses who got in his way. He was a very angry, relentlessly curious, incurably opinionated man.

Patrick Bergin as Burton / Iain Glen as Speke
The Mountains of the Moon, dir. Bob Rafelson (1990)]

Despite all the many, many books he wrote - including travel classics such as his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah & Meccah (1855-56) or The Lake Regions of Central Africa (1860) - it's his sixteen-volume translation of the 1001 Nights (or, as he called it, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night) which will survive him. It is, in its strange way - a way almost as strange as the man who wrote it - a kind of masterpiece.

[Richard F. Burton: Arabian Nights (1885-88)]

It's certainly a book that you either love or hate. At the moment, hatred appears to be in the ascendant. Marina Warner's recent book Stranger Magic: Charmed States & The Arabian Nights (2011) scarcely mentions it except to denigrate it by comparison with Burton's distinguished predecessors Antoine Galland and William Lane. She is forced to rely instead on a recent complete French translation of the Nights for much of her information about the book.

[Jamel Eddine Bencheikh & André Miquel, trans.: Les Mille et Une Nuits (2005-6)]

And in many ways this is fair enough. Even his strongest supporters would have to acknowledge that Burton's prose is bizarrely archaic and (at times) almost incomprehensibly eccentric. His verse - not a single one of the thousand-odd poems that throng the work is omitted - is, if anything, worse. What good is a translation that is almost impossible to read?

Then there are his footnotes. These are justly famous as a compendium of anthropological detail about the East, gathered over decades of wanderings through its many regions. Some of them are, admittedly, smutty (learned disquisitions on the sizes of the "organs" of different races; reams of information on clitorectomy and the various ways of making eunuchs), but I guess some of their shock value has worn off since 1885, when the ten volumes that constitute the translation proper first appeared.

It's not an easy read - nor was it ever meant to be. You almost need to learn a new language, Burton-ese, a weird amalgam of The Anatomy of Melancholy and Motteux and Urquhart's seventeenth-century translation of Rabelais, seasoned with a dash of Robert Browning, to understand him. But that's not an impossible task. It gets easier with practice, and the rewards are considerable. It's no accident that it was Jorge Luis Borges' favourite book (not to mention the praise lavished on it by Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki). Like Edgar Allan Poe, Burton has a tendency to appeal more to non-native speakers of English than to his own more constipated countrymen.

The other great advantage to reading Burton in full is the immense apparatus of appendices, supplemental volumes, extra stories, and miscellaneous information about folklore and history which dominates (especially) the last six volumes of his translation, the so-called Supplemental Nights.

NB: Some reprints include seven supplementary volumes rather than the original six, but this is simply because volume XIII, containing the original versions of Galland's so-called "orphan stories" (including "Aladdin" and "Ali Baba") is so vast that it has seemed (at times) to make more sense to split it in two. There is otherwise no difference between the 16 and 17 volume editions - though certain of the twentieth-century Burton Club reprints, in the interests of reducing the size of their own volume 13, leave out Burton's lengthy literal translation of Galland's "Aladdin", preferring to include only his translation of the then recently discovered Arabic text (now, alas, generally regarded as anterior to Galland's, rather than as the original source of his French version).

[John Payne (1842-1916)]

Another accusation which has been levelled at Burton's Nights is the contention that much of his version was plagiarised from John Payne's 9-volume edition of 1882-84 (supplemented with four extra volumes of material, which roughly accord with Burton's volumes 11-13).

Burton himself makes no secret of his reliance on Payne's translation. He remarks of it, somewhat disarmingly:

I cannot but feel proud that he has honoured me with the dedication of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night." His version is most readable: his English, with a sub-flavour of the Mabinogionic archaicism, is admirable; and his style gives light and life to the nine volumes whose matter is frequently heavy enough. He succeeds admirably in the most difficult passages and he often hits upon choice and special terms and the exact vernacular equivalent of the foreign word, so happily and so picturesquely that all future translators must perforce use the same expression under pain of falling far short [my italics]. (Burton, 1885, 1: xiii)

While it's true that, in later life, John Payne (himself a notoriously testy individual) took to complaining about the liberties Burton had taken with his text - to wit, the wholesale copying of great swathes of it - a brief consultation of his version (which has recently, for some odd reason, been reprinted in full by Borders Bookshop in their classics series) might suggest to you that the truth is somewhat more complex than that.

For a start, Burton has revised all the transliterations of Arabic names - in itelf a not inconsiderable task. For another thing, Payne's somewhat convoluted verse translations have all been altered into infinitely more convoluted and strange "poems" by Burton (in fact, where a verse has been repeated exactly from an earlier volume, Burton sometimes quotes Payne's very different translation of it for variety).

Finally, great though Payne's command of Arabic and other Eastern languages undoubtedly was, he seldom left London, and it's a little hard to believe that his text couldn't be tweaked in some small respects by the famous traveller who managed to travel to Mecca undetected, passing as a native. As to that, though, Payne himself remarked, in a footnote to his 1898 translation of the quatrains of Omar Khayyam:

Capt. Burton's knowledge of literary Arabic, the qualification most needed for the successful accomplishment of the task in question, was, (as he himself, like the high-minded and honourable man he was, freely admitted on becoming acquainted with my work,) much inferior to my own and consequently his translation, and especially that part in which, as above stated, he had not the advantage of being able to guide himself by my previous version, is far less accurate than mine. No one is of course exempt from liability to error and mistakes must of necessity occur in the translation of an excessively difficult work like the Nights, executed pioneer-fashion, without any kind of assistance and at a time when Arabic dictionaries were both rare and miserably incomplete; but I have no hesitation in asserting, without fear of authoritative contradiction, that ... for every mistake which can be discovered in my work, it were easy to point out at least a dozen in those of Lane and Burton.

He went on to promise "as a curious chapter of literary history, the detailed story of my translation of the Nights and of the desperate and unscrupulous efforts of certain cliques, whose interests it threatened, to suppress, or at least to crush, it, efforts which happily, thanks to some remnant of discernment on the part of the reading public, proved entirely futile; as well as of my connection with Sir Richard Burton and the circumstances which led him, consequently upon the brilliant success of my version, to undertake a new one on his own account." As far as I know, he never published this more detailed account of the matter. There is, however, a good deal of evidence about it in Payne-afficionado Thomas Wright's respective biographies of Richard Burton (1906) and John Payne (1919).

[John Payne: Arabian Nights (1882-84)]

Having weighed up what has been said on both sides, I think it's clear that the deal Burton and Payne (allegedly) struck - that the latter would have priority in issuing his translation, in exchange for turning a blind eye to the benefit the former was able to derive from copying his "exact vernacular equivalents" to so many conundrums in the original Arabic - probably seemed like a better idea in 1882 than it did in 1888, when it had become clear that Burton's translation was going to continue to eclipse his predecessor's in popularity. Burton himself suggests one obvious reason why:

... the learned and versatile author bound himself to issue only five hundred copies, and "not to reproduce the work in its complete and uncastrated form." Consequently his excellent version is caviare to the general - practically unprocurable.

[Justin H. McCarthy, ed.: Lady Burton's Edition of Her Husband's Arabian Nights (1886)]

Burton, by contrast, issued a thousand sets of his own translation (they had to be privately published in order to avoid prosecution for obscenity). It was also issued commercially in a "castrated" version by his wife, Lady Burton, and (subsequently, in 1898) in a far less brutally abridged Library Edition.

The plain facts that Payne's supporters have to face are:

1. Who on earth would prefer a translation whose prose is every bit as dreadful as Burton's own, but which lacks the benefit of his bizarrely erudite annotation?
2. Payne's curious versions of Arabic names are even more obtrusive and difficult to read than Burton's more conventional transliterations.
3. Payne also lacks some of Burton's more interesting features, such as retention of the internal rhymes characteristic of Arabic kunstprosa.
4. Burton had the benefit, not just of Payne's guidance, but of Lane's, Scott's and Galland's, not to mention the various German translators who had traversed the same paths before him: "And here I hasten to confess that ample use has been made of the ... versions above noted, the whole being blended by a callida junctura into a homogeneous mass" (Burton, 1885, I:xiii).

As you can see from the above, Burton made no secret of his debt to Payne. No doubt he understated its extent, but there was certainly no concealment of it either in his preface or later on, in his famous (or infamous) "terminal essay", with its innumerable asides on points of detail to do with the Nights or Eastern culture generally.

The truth is, those who find Burton unreadable are unlikely to have any more success with Payne. If their two translations of the Arabian Nights run more closely together than might seem common in the work of completely independent scholars, the sad fact is that Burton was the principal beneficiary. Payne may have done more than his fair share of the work of translation, but there can be little doubt that Burton made up for it with all the extras contained in his own sixteen volumes (including a very valuable concordance of all then extant versions of the collection, compiled by W. F. Kirby, included in his tenth volume).

The Nights made Burton a rich man. it's hard to see how he could have completed his task in such record time without the pioneering work of Payne, but that doesn't alter the fact that it was still a worthwhile thing to do. There have been many excellent translations of the Arabian Nights since then, but none of them have aspired to equal - let alone surpass - Burton's matchless freight of notes and appendices. It wasn't, in fact, until 2008 that anyone even tried to publish another "complete" translation in English (see my review of Malcolm C. Lyon's three-volume Penguin Classics version here). Clear and elegant though it is, it lacks the textual and critical apparatus of the comparable versions in French, Italian and German.

[Marzolph & van Leeuwen: The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia (2004)]

Not even the recent appearance of Ulrich Marzolph and Richard van Leeuwen's 2-volume Arabian Nights Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA / Denver CO / Oxford, UK: ABC Clio, 2004), magisterial though it is, could be said to have definitively superseded Burton's Nights. There simply is no other source for much of the detail he provides: especially about the other translators and translations up to 1885 ...

He may have sounded like a belligerent madman at times, but he was a great scholar - and the most independent (albeit eccentric) of thinkers - for all that.

•


[Burton in profile]

Richard F. Burton:
A Bibliography of My Collection

It's not particularly extensive, or packed with rareties, as you can see below. I have done my best to collect inexpensive reprints of as many as possible of his books, though - particularly those relating to Arabia and the Arabian Nights.

I. Original Works

[Richard F. Burton: Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851)]



1. Burton, Richard F. Goa, and The Blue Mountains; or, Six Months of Sick Leave. 1851. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

   His very first book: in it he began his lifelong habit of essentially presenting the contents of his notebooks wihout much ordering beyond the chronological ...





[Richard F. Burton: Sindh (1851)]



2. Burton, Richard F. Sindh and The Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus with Notices of the Topography and History of the Province. 1851. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1992.

   Still a valuable guidebook to the area, widely available in Indian bookshops.





[Richard F. Burton: Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah & Meccah (1855-56)]



3. Burton, Richard F. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah & Meccah. 1855-56. Ed. Lady Burton. 1893. Bohn’s Library. 1898. 2 vols. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1913.

   Lots of extras: maps, appendices, and so on, in this edition of the travel classic.





[Richard F. Burton: Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (1855-56)]



4. Burton, Richard F. Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. 1855-56. Intro. J. M. Scott. Geneva: Heron, n.d.

   A more conventional reprint of the main text.







[Richard F. Burton: The Lake Regions of Central Africa (1860)]



5. Burton, Richard F. The Source of the Nile. The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration. 1860. Introduction by Ian Curteis. London: The Folio Society, 1993.

   A very grumpy book. Burton could never get over the fact that the "unscientific" Speke was actually more-or-less right about the source of the White Nile, whereas he, with all his graphs and knowledge, was wrong. It didn't help that he'd been too ill to take part in that last side-expedition on their appallingly arduous trek together ...







[Richard F. Burton: The Gold-Mines of Midian (1878)]



6. Burton, Richard F. The Gold-Mines of Midian [and the Ruined Midianite Cities: a Fortnight’s Tour in North-Western Arabia]. 1878. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.

   Yet another one of Burton's get-rich-quick schemes - as unsuccessful as most of the others.







[Richard F. Burton: The Kasîdah (1880)]



7. Burton, Richard F. The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû el Yezdi: A Lay of the Higher Law. 1880. Booklover’s Library. London: Hutchinson, n.d.

   Versified wisdom in the persona of a Middle-Eastern sage.







[Richard F. Burton: The Book of the Sword (1884)]



8. Burton, Richard F. The Book of the Sword. 1884. New York: Dover Publications, 1987.

   Very thorough - still indispensable to this day.

•

II. Translations

Alf layla wa layla (c.8th-18th century)




[Richard F. Burton: Arabian Nights (1885-88)]


[Richard F. Burton: Arabian Nights, vol. I (1885)]



1. Burton, Richard F, trans. A Plain and Literal Translation of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, Now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: With Introduction, Explanatory Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and a Terminal Essay upon the History of the Nights. 10 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1885. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1900].
2. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 6 vols. Benares [= Stoke-Newington]: Kamashastra Society, 1886-88. 7 vols. N.p. [= Boston]: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1900].

   One of the many, many reprints of the original form of Burton's translation, this one uses something close to the original plates, but has a very different binding and appearance (as well as being divided into 17 volumes instead of 16 - see the discussion of this slight anomaly in my introduction above).





[Richard F. Burton: Arabian Nights (1885-88)]


[Richard F. Burton: Terminal Essay [Arabian Nights, vol. X} (1885)]



3. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 10 vols. U.S.A.: The Burton Club, n.d. [c.1940s].
4. Burton, Richard F., trans. Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory. 1886-88. 6 vols. U.S.A..: The Burton Club, n.d. [c. 1940s].

   This is a later facsimile, reset, but still almost identical in pagination to the original, except in the six volumes of Supplemental Nights, which have been more comprehensively rearranged. The binding is a very close echo of the 1885-88 original.







[Valenti Angelo: The 1001 Nights (1934)]



5. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 1885. 3 vols. New York: The Heritage Press, 1934.

   The first "complete" Burton I ever read. It reproduces the text of the ten volumes of his translation of the Nights proper, with elegant embellishments by Valenti Angelo. Well worth having.







[Bennett A Cerf, ed.: The 1001 Nights (1932)]



6. Burton, Richard F., trans. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, or The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Selection of the Most Famous and Representative of these Tales. Ed. Bennett A Cerf. 1932. Introductory Essay by Ben Ray Redman. New York: Modern Library, 1959.

   The first substantial commercially available one-volume selection from the whole work.





[P. H. Newby, ed.: Tales from the Arabian Nights (1950)]



7. Burton, Richard F., trans. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Selection. Ed. P. H. Newby. 1950. London: Arthur Barker, 1953.

   Rather a thin selection, but at least it includes a glossary of his more bizarre archaisms.





[Julian Franklyn, ed.: More Stories from the Arabian Nights (1957)]



8. Burton, Richard F., trans. More Stories from the Arabian Nights. Ed. Julian Franklyn. London: Arthur Barker, 1957.

   Sequel to the former.





[Kenneth Walker, ed.: Love, War and Fancy (1964)]



9. Burton, Richard F. Love, War and Fancy: The Customs and Manners of the East from Writings on The Arabian Nights. Ed. Kenneth Walker. 1885. London: Kimber Paperback Library, 1964.

   A very useful reprint of the more substantial notes and essays in Burton's translation. It was designed as a companion volume to the similar compendium of Lane's Notes to the Nights: Arabian Society in the Middle Ages (1883).





[David Shumaker, ed.: Tales from the Arabian Nights (1978)]



10. Burton, Richard F., trans. Tales from the Arabian Nights: Selected from the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Ed. David Shumaker. New York: Avenel Books, 1978.

    A judicious and compendious selection.





[Jack Zipes, ed.: Arabian Nights (1991)]


[Jack Zipes, ed.: Arabian Nights II (1999)]



11. Burton, Richard F., trans. Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Ed. Jack Zipes. Signet Classic. New York: Penguin, 1991.
12. Burton, Richard F., trans. Arabian Nights, Volume II: More Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Adapted from Sir Richard F. Burton’s Unexpurgated Translation. Ed. Jack Zipes. Signet Classic. New York: New American Library, 1999.

    Zipes has tried to get over the problem of Burton's English by rewriting and simplifying his prose. One can see the point, but the end result is neither fish nor fowl.





[Ashwin J. Shah, ed.: Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights (1992)]



13. Burton, Richard F., trans. Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights. 1885-1888. Ed. Ashwin J. Shah. 1992. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 1999.

    Another substantial selection, intended principally for the Indian market.




•



Giambattista Basile (c.1566–1632)






[Richard F. Burton, trans.: Il Pentamerone (1893)]



14. Basile, Giovanni Batiste. Il Pentamerone. Trans. Richard F. Burton. 1893. New York: Horace Liveright, 1932.

    A beautiful reprint of Burton's translation, but lacking his preface and notes.




•



Gaius Valerius Catullus (c.84–c.54 BC)






[Richard F. Burton, trans.: The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus (1894)]



15. Burton, Richard F. & Leonard C. Smithers, trans. The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus: Now first completely Englished into Verse and Prose, the Metrical Part by Capt. Sir Richard F. Burton, K. C. M. B., F. R. C. S., etc., etc. etc., and the Prose Portion, Introduction, and Notes Explanatory and Illustrative by Leonard C. Smithers. Preface by Lady Isabel Burton. London: Printed for the Translators, 1894.

    An interesting, but not very mellifluous translation, one is forced to confess.




•



Kalyana Malla (c.15th-16th century)






[Richard F. Burton, trans.: The Ananga Ranga (1885)]



16. Burton, Richard F., and F. F. Arbuthnot, trans. The Ananga Ranga of Kalyana Malla. 1885. London: Kimber, 1963.

    Another "love manual" from ancient India.




•



Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Nafzawi [Sheikh Nefzawi] (c.12th Century)






[Richard F. Burton, trans.: The Perfumed Garden (2011)]



17. Nefzawi, Shaykh. The Perfumed Garden. Trans. Richard F. Burton. 1886. Ed. Alan Hull Walton. 1963. London: Panther, 1966.

    More modern translators claim that Burton took appalling liberties with his original (which was, in any case, French - not Arabic). The very much fuller translation he is alleged to have made in his last years from the original Arabic text was burnt after his death by his widow.







[Richard F. Burton: The Glory of the Perfumed Garden (2011)]



18. Nefzawi, Shaykh. The Glory of the Perfumed Garden: The Missing Flowers. An English Translation from the Arabic of the Second and Hitherto Unpublished Part of Shaykh Nafzawi’s Perfumed Garden. Trans. H. E. J. 1975. London: Granada, 1978.

    A rather dodgy 'sequel' to Burton's translation, with a translator who won't even sign his name to it. Entertaining, though.




•



Priapeia (c.1st Century B.C.)








[Richard F. Burton, trans.: Priapeia (1890)]



19. Smithers, L. C. & Sir Richard Burton, trans. Priapeia sive diversorum poetarum in Priapum lusus, or Sportive Epigrams on Priapus by divers poets in English verse and prose. 1890. Wordsworth Classic Erotica. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1995.

    By now, it's clear that Burton had realised that translations of vaguely smutty ancient texts, with elaborate notes (generally compiled by his collaborators rather than himself), was the road to wealth - if not fame.




•



Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī [Saʿdī] (1184-c.1283/1291)




[Richard F. Burton, trans.: The Gulistân (1888)]



20. Burton, R. F., trans. [Edward Retnisak]. Tales from the Gulistân, or Rose-Garden of the Sheikh Sa’di of Shirâz. 1888. London: Philip Allen, 1928.

    And this book, though promulgated posthumously under his name, was not even translated by him, we've now been informed.




•



Śivadāsa (c.12th-14th century)




[Richard F. Burton: King Vikram and the Vampire (1870)]



21. Burton, Richard F. Vikram and the Vampire, or Tales of Hindu Devilry. 1870. Memorial Edition. Ed. Isabel Burton. London: Thylston & Edwards, 1893.

    An early, very zesty, and unashamedly "written-up" version of the Indian tales.




•



Mallanaga Vātsyāyana (c.4th-6th century)






[Richard F. Burton, trans.: The Kama Sutra (1883)]



22. Burton, Richard F., and F. F. Arbuthnot, trans. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana. 1883. Ed. John Muirhead-Gould. 1963. London: Panther, 1968.

    Still, probably, the most famous and widely available of Burton's works.

•

III. Secondary Literature

[Lesley Blanch: The Wilder Shores of Love (1954)]



1. Blanch, Lesley. The Wilder Shores of Love. 1954. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1959.

   This book offers a partial biography of Lady Burton rather than her husband, but he tends to dominate even so. Very entertaining, and a considerable bestseller in its day.







[Byron Farwell: Burton (1963)]



2. Farwell, Byron. Burton: A Biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton. 1963. Harmondsworth: Viking, 1988.

   The first substantial modern biography of Burton - now superseded in some respects, but still worth a read.







[Fawn M. Brodie: The Devil Drives (1967)]



3. Brodie, Fawn M. The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton. 1967. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

   A beautifully written and well-researched piece of work. Still, in many ways, the most perspicacious of the various attempts to psychoanalyse Burton.







[William Harrison: Burton and Speke (1982)]



4. Harrison, William. Burton and Speke. 1982. London: Star, 1985.

   An entertaining and well written novel about the Nile expedition: the inspiration for the rather freer-with-the-facts film The Mountains of the Moon (1990).







[Edward Rice: Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1990)]



5. Rice, Edward. Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered the Kama Sutra, and Brought the Arabian Nights to the West. 1990. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.

   A hugely detailed but, alas, somewhat credulous biography of Burton. Not really to be recommended, despite the fact that it contains a good deal of information not readily available elsewhere.







[Frank McLynn: From the Sierras to the Pampas (1991)]



6. McLynn, Frank. From the Sierras to the Pampas: Richard Burton’s Travels in the Americas, 1860-69. London: Century, 1991.

   Excellent account of Burton's American travels: to the Mormons in Utah, the Highlands of Brazil, and the battlefields of Paraguay, among many other places.







[Christopher Ondaatje: Sindh Revisited (1996)]



7. Ondaatje, Christopher. Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton – 1842-1849: The India Years. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1996.

   Excellent example of the "in the footsteps of" genre of travel writing.







['Marcus Ardonne', ed.: The Secret Sutras (1996)]



8. 'Ardonne, Marcus,' ed. The Secret Sutras: The ‘Lost’ Erotic Journals of Sir Richard Burton. London: New English Library, 1996.

   A rather silly, tongue-in-cheek attempt to forge some secret "erotic" diaries for the great explorer. Listed here for completeness' sake only.







[Mary S. Lovell: A Rage to Live (1998)]



9. Lovell, Mary S. A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton. 1998. London: Abacus, 1999.

   An impressive attempt to sum up where we are now with Burton biography. Lovell is a good writer and an astute judge of character, witness her excellent biographies of Winston Churchill and Amelia Earhart (among others).

[Alfred Bercovici: That Blackguard Burton! (1962)]