Richard Francis Burton
(translator)
The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night
(10 volumes, with 6 supplemental volumes)
To download single files, see below
Download ZIP archive files containing Volumes 1 to 16
Last updated June 11, 2023 (plain text and ePub files have been reformatted)
You can find scanned copies of the printed volumes at
www.burtoniana.org/books/1885-Arabian Nights
For John Paynes translation, see
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Thousand_Nights_and_One_Night
There is a new Android app that, as the author has told me, is based on the Dunyazad edition of 1001 Nights:
play.google.com/store/apps/details?
About the Author
Richard Francis Burton was a man of an exceptional range of interests and achievements; traveler, explorer, adventurer, soldier, and diplomat. Speaking 29 European, Asian and African languages, he was a linguist, ethnologist and orientalist, as well as a writer and translator. Always outspoken, notorious for his interests in all matters of sexuality, never one to conform to conventional rules of social behavior, and, for what is known, possessed by an irascible temper, he was surrounded by rumors of scandal and violence, and thus never was promoted to military or diplomatic rank that would have fully matched his merits.
Burton was born on March 19th, 1821, in Devon, as son of a British army officer and his wealthy wife; during Burtons childhood and youth, the family traveled between England, France and Italy, during which time Burton learned French, Italian, Latin, and several local dialects.
In 1840 Burton enrolled in Trinity College at Oxford, from where he was expelled two years later. Here is not the place to describe in any detail the adventurous life on which Burton then embarked; it included military service in India (184249), a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina disguised as a Pakistani Muslim pilgrim (1853), an expedition to Ethiopia where he was the first European to enter the town of Harar (1854), army service in the Crimean War (1855), together with John Hanning Speke an expedition, funded by the Royal Geographic Society, into the depths of unexplored Central Africa, (1858), a travel to America (1860), and, after entering the Foreign Service, appointments as Consul to Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea) from where he explored the West African coast (1861), to Santos in Brazil (1865), to Damascus (1869) and finally to Trieste (1873); he was awarded knighthood (KCGM) in 1886. In 1851 Burton had met his future wife, Isabel Arundell; they married in 1861.
During all his life, Burton used every opportunity to study not only languages, but also people and their cultures, and he wrote extensively about his travels and his studies, some 40 books and hundreds of magazine articles. In addition, he created translations of erotic literature, namely The Arabian Nights, the Kama Sutra, and The Perfumed Garden, at his time considered pornography. To be able to publish them without risking jail, he founded a private society, the Kama Shastra Society, for whose members these books were exclusively printed.
Boldly defying conventional restraints and perceptions, he was nonetheless not free of his own prejudices, rash judgments and obscure notions. But on reading The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night, there is no doubt how much we owe to Burtons dedication, matched by his knowledge and his literary skills, to present us with a sweeping and authentic view of this huge timeless treasure, rescuing it from the confinements of the Victorian morals of his age.
Burton died in Trieste on October 20th, 1890, of a heart attack. Isabel, who survived him for several years, never recovered from the loss. She, herself a writer, had been (in his own words) her husbands most ardent supporter, and assisted him with many of his writings. After his death though, believing to act in his interest, she burned many of his papers and unpublished manuscripts, among them a new translation of The Perfumed Garden called The Scented Garden, which she herself regarded to have been his magnum opus a work that is now lost to us. The couple is buried at Mortlake, Surrey, in an elaborate tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent.
Download PDF files
Volume 1 release 1.11 441 pages
Volume 2 release 1.03 417 pages
Volume 3 release 1.02 436 pages
Volume 4 release 1.05 367 pages
Volume 5 release 1.02 486 pages
Volume 6 release 1.02 354 pages
Volume 7 release 1.01 466 pages
Volume 8 release 1.01 415 pages
Volume 9 release 1.01 423 pages
Volume 10 release 1.0 313 pages
Supplemental volumes:
Volume 11 release 1.0 305 pages
Volume 12 release 1.0 260 pages
Volume 13 release 1.01 456 pages
Volume 14 release 1.01 348 pages
Volume 15 release 1.01 419 pages
Volume 16 release 1.0 457 pages
Download plain text files
Volume 1 release 1.11d
Volume 2 release 1.03d
Volume 3 release 1.02d
Volume 4 release 1.05d
Volume 5 release 1.02d
Volume 6 release 1.02d
Volume 7 release 1.01d
Volume 8 release 1.01d
Volume 9 release 1.01d
Volume 10 release 1.0d
Supplemental volumes:
Volume 11 release 1.0d
Volume 12 release 1.0d
Volume 13 release 1.01d
Volume 14 release 1.01d
Volume 15 release 1.01d
Volume 16 release 1.0d
Download ePub files
Volume 1 release 1.11d
Volume 2 release 1.03d
Volume 3 release 1.02d
Volume 4 release 1.05d
Volume 5 release 1.02d
Volume 6 release 1.02d
Volume 7 release 1.01d
Volume 8 release 1.01d
Volume 9 release 1.01d
Volume 10 release 1.0d
Supplemental volumes:
Volume 11 release 1.0d
Volume 12 release 1.0d
Volume 13 release 1.01d
Volume 14 release 1.01d
Volume 15 release 1.01d
Volume 16 release 1.0d