burton--1001-nights--sample

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 Burton’s 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 husband’s
“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many of his papers and unpublished manuscripts, among them a new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.
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