"All the splendour and squalor, the beauty and baseness, the glamour and grotesqueness, the magic and the mournfulness, the bravery and the baseness of Oriental life are here: its pictures of the three great Arab passions, love, war and fancy, entitle it to be called "Blood, Musk and Hashish"." So wrote Sir Richard Burton of The Arabian Nights on which he worked for a quarter of a century. The sixteen volumes which were the fruit of his labour comprised not only his translation of the original Arabic texts but also extensive Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and a Terminal Essay which alone occupies nearly a whole volume. These original contributions were not regarded by Burton as simply ancillary; on the contrary, he declared that they formed "a repertory of Eastern knowledge in its esoteric phase, sexual as well as social." They reflect how intensely Burton was fascinated by the East, how his knowledge was acquired partly by erudition but more especially by his travels and how he believed in bringing uncompromising outspokenness to whatever facet of human behaviour attracted his interest.
Contemporary criticism has almost unanimously evaluated this material as the acme of Burton's genius. This is its first publication in full apart from private editions of the complete set of volumes for subscribers only.