Les mille et un jours, contes persans. Traduits par M. Petis de La Croix

New edition.
Contemporary full marbled calf binding. Smooth spine decorated. Red morocco title-labels, garnet morocco volume labels. Headcaps of volumes I, II and V partly worn. Lacking at tail of volume I. 4 corners slightly bumped throughout the set. Speckled edges. One wormhole to lower joint at head of volume III. Despite minor defects, a handsome copy.
The work presents itself as the translation by orientalist Pétis de la Croix of a manuscript given to him, in friendship, by "Dervis Moclès" (the Faithful Dervish) (p. 49), who had himself translated and adapted Persian tales from Indian stories, moreover sufficiently prized to be also known in a Turkish version, under the title of al-Farage bada al-schidda1 (p. 49). Thus anchored in Islamic literary tradition, to which Pétis de la Croix had actual access through his training, this corpus was then compared to the Arabian Nights, and deliberately followed in its wake. A particular literary creation of the 18th century, these tales borrowed from real Oriental sources while being at the same time pure creations, but following the model of imitation and adaptation, the author even going so far as to reverse the narrative mode of the Arabian Nights: a prince prejudiced against women; and in the Thousand and One Days, it is a princess prejudiced against men. Some critics think that these tales would have been originally conceived to provide a sequel for publisher Barbin to the Arabian Nights, of which 2 tales are found at the end of volume VIII.