STORIES FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS by Housman, Laurence (Retold By) - 1920

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920 Publisher's full blue cloth, gilt and blind-stamped lettering on spine, blind-stamped borders on cover. 245 pp. Illustrated with 29 full-color, tipped-in plates by Edmund Dulac. Gift inscription on fep dated December 14, 1920. Tight and square, all text and plates in perfect condition; boards show very light shelf-wear, else fine. NEAR FINE. Antoine Galland (1646-1715) was a French orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of The Thousand and One Nights. (also known as The Arabian Nights in English). His version of the tales appeared in twelve volumes between 1704 and 1717 and exerted a huge influence on subsequent European literature and attitudes to the Islamic world. Galland had come across a manuscript of The Tale of Sindbad the Sailor in the 1690s and in 1701 he published his translation of it into French. Its success encouraged him to embark on a translation of a 14th-century Syrian manuscript of tales from the The Thousand and One Nights. The first two volumes of this work, under the title Les mille et une nuits, appeared in 1704. The twelfth and final volume was published posthumously in 1717. Galland translated the first part of his work solely from the Syrian manuscript, but in 1709 he was introduced to a Christian Maronite monk from Aleppo, Hanna Diab, who recounted fourteen more stories to Galland from memory. Galland chose to include seven of these tales in his version of the Nights. Mystery still surrounds the origins of some of the most famous tales. For instance, there are no Arabic manuscripts of Aladdin and Ali Baba which pre-date Galland's translation, leading some scholars to conclude that Galland invented them himself and the Arabic versions are merely later renderings of his original French. Edmund Dulac was one of the most prolific and most impressive illustrators of the early 20th century. His work covers a wide range of themes and styles, and is characterized by the strongly defined personality of the people he depicts and the elaborate backgrounds and shading of his scenes . Dulac is best known for his illustrations of the Arabian Nights, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and various Fairy Tales from Perrault, like Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.. Hard Cover. Near Fine/No Dust Jacket. Illus. by Edmund Dulac. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.