--- product_id: 4523841 title: "The Arabian Nights" price: "£32.82" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/4523841-the-arabian-nights store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Arabian Nights **Price:** £32.82 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Arabian Nights - **How much does it cost?** £32.82 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/4523841-the-arabian-nights) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description They are ancient stories, but they still enchant our imaginations today. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves . Sinbad the Sailor . Aladdin . These and the other Middle Eastern stories collected in Arabian Nights are delightful, fascinating, and fun for fans and first-time readers alike. This beautiful, leather-bound edition collects the classic tales of Arabian Nights in a new, redesigned format. Specially designed end papers, gilded edges, a ribbon bookmark, and other decorative elements enhance the reading experience, while an introduction by scholar Ken Mondschein provides new information and context for these well-known stories. Arabian Nights is a compelling look at both Arabic culture and Western ideas of the East--and the perfect addition to any home library. Review: Just as advertised - Looks nice, quality is good, no damage. Review: magnificent panoply of richly detailed stories - Burton weaves an entire world, dazzling in its splendor and detail if arguably ethnocentric, e.g., in its depiction of working-class Arabs as thieves, liars, schemers, and plotters--who, in some cases, beat their own mothers until gently "corrected" by the sultan's bastinado. I agree with many of my fellow reviewers that Burton's English can present difficulties--in some cases, exceptional difficulties--though those who can read the King James Bible of 1611 should have no difficulty with Burton's Victorian vocabulary and sentence structures. (To be quite honest, the lack of a single paragraph break is more troubling--foreboding, even, at first sight--than the choice of vocabulary. Just be warned that words that you think you know you really don't know, unless you consider the underlying Greek or Latin roots. For example, "prevent" means "come before," which--while counterintuitive to the modern reader--makes perfect sense insofar as 'pre-' is Latin for 'before' and 'venire' is Latin for 'come'.) Prepare to be seduced, astonished, and bewildered by the fantastic magic of the world that Burton offers us--noting, albeit, that his world is a melange of cultural elements culled from the Arabian peninsula, Iran, India, Turkey, even Morocco--and be admonished that there is plenty of detailed erotic content (sometimes bowdlerized as "they fell to a-dallying with one another" or some such) that is best kept from younger children. Admittedly, the collection of footnotes at the end--and the continual restarting of numbering from tale to tale--can present a hindrance, but this should not present a problem, as the footnotes seldom deal with the actual flow of the story, instead offering obscure (even pedantic) historical or linguistic minutiae. Lastly, as a cultural backdrop against which to evaluate and ponder these stories, consider that the Middle East of Burton's collection represented the erstwhile summit of man's achievements: while illiterate Europeans were slaving away as landed noblemen's serfs, living in rude wooden huts, and fleeing like frightened rats from hordes of invading Mongols or bands of merciless Viking raiders, ninth-century Middle Easterners lived in splendid cities; enjoyed written fluency in their native languages; exercised religious freedom; and engaged in bold, productive research in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and pharmacy at the sultan's behest and sponsorship. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #168,252 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,473 in Classic Literature & Fiction #2,954 in Short Stories (Books) #9,169 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,766 Reviews | ## Images ![The Arabian Nights - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81eoAlXUeDL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Just as advertised *by A***U on May 17, 2026* Looks nice, quality is good, no damage. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ magnificent panoply of richly detailed stories *by B***R on July 21, 2005* Burton weaves an entire world, dazzling in its splendor and detail if arguably ethnocentric, e.g., in its depiction of working-class Arabs as thieves, liars, schemers, and plotters--who, in some cases, beat their own mothers until gently "corrected" by the sultan's bastinado. I agree with many of my fellow reviewers that Burton's English can present difficulties--in some cases, exceptional difficulties--though those who can read the King James Bible of 1611 should have no difficulty with Burton's Victorian vocabulary and sentence structures. (To be quite honest, the lack of a single paragraph break is more troubling--foreboding, even, at first sight--than the choice of vocabulary. Just be warned that words that you think you know you really don't know, unless you consider the underlying Greek or Latin roots. For example, "prevent" means "come before," which--while counterintuitive to the modern reader--makes perfect sense insofar as 'pre-' is Latin for 'before' and 'venire' is Latin for 'come'.) Prepare to be seduced, astonished, and bewildered by the fantastic magic of the world that Burton offers us--noting, albeit, that his world is a melange of cultural elements culled from the Arabian peninsula, Iran, India, Turkey, even Morocco--and be admonished that there is plenty of detailed erotic content (sometimes bowdlerized as "they fell to a-dallying with one another" or some such) that is best kept from younger children. Admittedly, the collection of footnotes at the end--and the continual restarting of numbering from tale to tale--can present a hindrance, but this should not present a problem, as the footnotes seldom deal with the actual flow of the story, instead offering obscure (even pedantic) historical or linguistic minutiae. Lastly, as a cultural backdrop against which to evaluate and ponder these stories, consider that the Middle East of Burton's collection represented the erstwhile summit of man's achievements: while illiterate Europeans were slaving away as landed noblemen's serfs, living in rude wooden huts, and fleeing like frightened rats from hordes of invading Mongols or bands of merciless Viking raiders, ninth-century Middle Easterners lived in splendid cities; enjoyed written fluency in their native languages; exercised religious freedom; and engaged in bold, productive research in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and pharmacy at the sultan's behest and sponsorship. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2009 edition. Absolutely beautiful *by L***B on May 13, 2026* Absolutely beautifully made. Arrived sooner than expected. This edition of the book 2009) is very hard to find. Just like the earlier 2006 edition (that I was unable to locate anywhere) it still has the original Arabic letters on the back (see pic) which were removed in the 2016 edition, according to some people- to downplay the “Arabic” part (isn’t the book called “Arabian Nights”? Confusing. Anyway, I personally wanted the original design with the letters intact. I also heard the later 2016 edition was sanitized to be more politically-correct in certain areas…Can’t comment on that but I absolutely love how the book looks. Brings back so many childhood memories ## Frequently Bought Together - The Arabian Nights (Leather-bound Classics) - Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (Leather-bound Classics) - Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Leather-bound Classics) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/4523841-the-arabian-nights](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/4523841-the-arabian-nights) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-06-22*