Formatted for E-Readers (Unabridged Version) - Color Illustrated

I have an old version of the complete Burton, and its pages are starting to yellow with age, because it was printed in the 30s on cheap acid-process paper. This version is beautifully done, and a welcome replacement, but it doesn't constitute the entire work. It's just a selection, but a good one. If you want the complete work, you'll have to keep searching.

This is a review for the leather bound edition, which is beautiful, it looks a little bit like a bed time story book, but gorgeous nonetheless for the price. Also happens to be one of my favorite collection of stories.

Free audiobook is worthless. I was under the impression it would be the Arabian nights audiobook but it's 8 other classics, which is fine if the links would work and were compatible with Kindle Fire. Thankfully it was only $.99 and it's actually a good read.

This is the most beautiful leather-bound book I have ever seen. I was amazed as the intricacy of its leather tooling and coloring. However, after reading it, the back broke apart. I crazy-glued it back together as well as I could to avoid throwing out the most beautiful book I've ver seen in leather; however, it left me with a decided annoyance with the Chinese who manufactured it. Initially, too, I thought the translation would be delightful. Burton the Victorian would of course speak in Victorian English, and that is rich language -- think Dickens, George Eliot, Hardy, etc. That's language as gorgeous as the leather tooling. But, I discovered that Burton the Victorian did not write in VIctorian ENglish. He tried to give the work a "timeless" mythic feeling by using a hodegepodge of Middle ENglish, Elizabethan English,and any other words he dcould make up,hence Ye Olden, Very Olden English. However, the stories were still so wondrous that I could overlook it. So, in sum, perhaps we should not be buying gorgeous, leather-bound books from the American companies outsourcing their work to the Chinese. We can depend on the Chinese to eat a lot of pigs and have much leather to sell, not to respect their work. This comes from a former China-lover who wrote her undergraduate thesis on a Chinese Ming dynasty novel.

Book is Great. It arrived on Saturday morning which was perfect for my weekend reading. It is a leather bound edition. with a ribbon place marker. and the edges are gold leave. I love this book. it arrived brand new in sealed condition. so I give the seller five stars and the store five stars as well

Its a hard read because it uses somewhat shakespearan language and you
need a little bit of arabic culture knowledge to understand some words but ovarell
a great read. Cover is beautiful and it has its own bookmark attatched.

Well the biggest problem with the Kindle edition? The cover, and the the store listing both indicate that it is the Richard Burton translation, when in fact it is the far less comprehensive Andrew Lang translation. It might as well have been a completely different book than what was advertised.

Since this is not actually the Burton translation, this edition does not contain Burton's detailed footnotes. Nor does it even contain all of the same stories as the version it claims to be.

Also, this book has no table of contents, doesn't even indicate which story/chapter you are at the top of the page, so navigation is actually much more difficult than even a print copy.

Apparently, some corrections were made since the poorest reviews (1 star) were made as there is now a Table of Contents, though the Table is not accessible from the Kindle menu. Most annoying yet is that the apparent source was a text document with hard line breaks that were not removed. The result is a very hard to read with every other line contains a few words, often just one. Hopefully this will be corrected. In it's current form, perhaps it's worth a dollar, but I for one would rather pay more for a book that reads like a book.

Very different to the versions we were read as children. It is filled with Princes, Kings, virgins, black slaves and eunuchs. Where were all the ordinary folk? I'm surprised by the level of cruelty spoken of as normal, it's a culture very different to ours. Drinking alcohol seemed to be the norm and religious tolerance abounded, so things have changed over the years. Some of the tales are quite short while others are long and complex. It isn't a book you can skip through and you don't need distractions, I found myself having to go back and re-read having lost the plot. However, it is interesting even if only fantasy.

It was terrible product badly put-together the type was too small it was just a poor reproduction not a real publishing everything was just a copy of a copy he doesn't even tell you who the publisher is a counterfeit :

I love this beautiful, leatherbound book! The cover is beautiful and I have had no issues with the binding. This book contains several wonderful illustrations that give the stories an old world feel, and I love the way that each title page invites you into the story! This classic is a fine addition to anyone's home library!

Sir Richard F. Burton translated the Arabian Nights very well. The language and poetic styles in the novel captures the feel of the Islamic Golden Age. Some problems I would have with it is that it dies have advanced language and themes that make it hard to understand sometimes. Also, because much of the language is very unique to the culture, I found myself having to look up what certain things were or meant very often. Once you pass these troubling words however, it really is fun to read. Many of these stories I have known since I was little, so it was cool to read what are the original tales. These stories also show a deep understanding of the Islamic culture including things like roles within society or even some problems that people faced during that time. With all this, I feel like my knowledge of the culture and time period has increased greatly.
I really flew through this book because I never wanted to put it down. The book captures your attention just like the king in the story. He was mesmerized by the princess' tales and so was I. Although some stories were a little strange, they were overall very entertaining. I highly recommend this book, however, it is an advanced read. Some themes and language are for a mature audience, but even those are very interesting to read. The whole novel offers dozens of perspectives on many different issues within the Muslim society. It is very unique due to the fact that many novel's today offer a very limited view coming from one or a couple of main characters. Overall, if you read this book, you'll never want to put it down because it is so entertaining and a really beautiful piece of literature.

This edition of the Arabian Nights is the complete Burton translation of all the stories of the NIghts, which is a hell of a lot of stories. I read them all all the way through, and I can say that you only need to do this if you are a die-hard fan of the Nights. There is a lot of repetition in the themes which you don't get in a good abridged volume of these stories, and which you only need to get if you really want the experience of reading everything Burton wrote. On the up side, this edition includes the tale of Aladdin, the stories of Sindbad, Ali Baba's tale of the 40 Thieves, and the tale of Ma'aruf the Cobbler, which is my favorite story in the Nights. Some of these stories are only a couple of pages long, and others span a hundred pages plus. Burton's notes are included, some of which are a lot of fun to read, and his terminal essay is included at the end, which attempts to establish an age for the Nights and discusses key themes and Muslim culture of the time when the Nights were written. I feel I got a lot out of these stories, that they were a good time, and it was 8 months reading well invested. Again, if you're just looking for an overview of the Nights, get an abridged edition of 800-1000 pages that has all the core stories in it and doesn't have all the repetitions. I got really sick of stories of lovelorn princes and merchant's sons and the objects of their affections. But I'm glad I read the whole thing, this is an item on my bucket list and I'm proud to say I ate the whole thing!

My son's school listed this book as required summer reading. I immediately ordered it and the rest of the list. I received it quickly and took a look.

I immediately discovered that the language in this book is archaic and challenging for a young reader, and figured that I really should read it so that I would be able to help him through it. So I read more.

I then discovered that Burton is not writing for a 9th grade audience. This version of the Arabian Nights is violent, racist, full of sex, and sexist -- in addition to being difficult. There were archaic or invented words on nearly every page, stilted "poetry" and repetitious material you just had to plow past to find the story. I began to question the judgment of the school, and sent off a query about the actual expectations from the assignment.

The result? There was an error made by the school in listing this specific translation. The correct version is: One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Oxford Story Collections) translated by Geraldine McCaughrean!

I ordered that version and found THAT version to be very readable and fun. I have read that in its entirety. Much better for a ninth grader! So if you are interested in reading the Arabian Nights, be aware that each of the "translations" is really a separate collection of stories and the details may vary depending upon the whim of the translator. Burton aimed to entertain a private subscriber audience in Victorian times -- nothing at all like Disney Aladdin! You might or might not want a different version!

The back of the cover adequately describes the story:
"..they were originally tales for adults, full of adventure, sexuality, violence..."
Sir Richard Burton, the author of this version, is an erotologist.
Not what I was looking for!

Having only read a children's version in grade school, I long wanted to read the original full unabridged version of the Arabian Nights. This book fulfilled that dream. As others have said, the text can be a little challenging in the beginning. But once you get familiar with the style, they are fine. Wonderful stories of magic, charms, intrigue, cunning, deceit and romance. So, something for everyone. I remembered some of the stories, but there were far more new tales than I expected. The texts are not 'politically correct.' So, if you are thin skinned and can not accept that, do not read the stories. The translator brought both the stories and Muslim culture as it is today alive. It is interesting that, only in the last two stories were characters connected. These from one tale to the other, ending with an interesting twist. The narratives say much about how the Islamic culture of today, still holds beliefs of yesterday. Recommended reading for those who like fantasy mixed with reality.

When Westerners think of monumental and well-read Islamic books, only two ever come to mind - the Koran and One Thousand and One Nights. Most have never cracked the spine of the former book (myself included), but the latter book has had portions of it read almost universally. In fact One Thousand and One Nights has been adapted by popular culture many times over, with the most famous example being Walt Disney's Aladdin. Today, I am going to discuss The Arabian Nights, which contains tales from One Thousand and One Nights.

The Arabian Nights is a beautiful hardcover with gilded edges and a ribbon bookmark. It is approximately 700 pages long and is the translation of Sir Richard Burton. The book begins with an introduction that explains the significance of this text, how the translation became Westernized and evolved over time, and how popular it has become in the media. We then are treated to the tales. This edition rightly begins and ends with The Tale of Scheherazade. For those unfamiliar with the tale, the sultan was cheated on by his wife. In order to never be cheated on again, he took up the practice of marrying a woman and killing her the next day, so she wouldn't have the opportunity to cheat. Scheherazade, however, kept herself alive by telling the sultan half a story a night, so that he would have to let her live so she could finish the story. This idea is the framework of One Thousand and One Nights. There are twenty-one tales total in this edition, ranging from about a dozen pages to forty pages. A lot of them were unrecognized by me, but there are some familiar ones. such as Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

Overall, I found this book to be an adequate introduction to the classic which is One Thousand and One Nights. If you would like to read the whole work, you can find a three-volume paperback set from Penguin Classics. There are two things that could have made this book better. The first is illustrations. I don't need a picture on every page, but I feel some scattered throughout the pages could have eliminated the walls of texts your eyes stared at. The other thing that could have made this better were footnotes. Sadly, none of Sire Richard Burton's footnotes were included in this edition. I, like others, believe these would have greatly enhanced understanding and thus made the stories more enjoyable.

Burton's translations take a lot of flack, but that's not very fair. It's fine for a breed of literary hardliners to throw stones, but there's no possibility they would have ever read any of the other translations had Burton not gone to the wall with the leading prudes of his day.

The translations in this edition are very understandable for younger readers, but the styling and the use of now archaic terms are heavy enough to set the work apart and encourage readers to explore the English language.

As for the appropriateness of the content for kids, it's just sad that so many people haven't learned anything in the last 100+ years. There's nothing remotely pornographic in these stories. The entire work is centered around the differences between the sexes and societal standards that are still extant in many parts of the world.

It's a disservice to young people to pretend the world outside their comfort bubble doesn't exist. It sets them up as targets when they're older and handicaps them in society.

Perhaps even more sad is the fact some parents don't know what's in the book. They should see about getting a refund from the schools they attended as kids. They didn't receive their complete education. It's probably too late for those parents, but there's no need to put their kids in the same waterlogged boat they are in.

On another note, if you break the binding on a book see if you can return it or something. Don't use CA glue on any part of the book. It's a complete waste of glue. If there's any cotton in the binding you're going to destroy the book as fully as you would in a fire. Use the same Internet you used to buy the book to research DIY broken binding repair.

Beware! This is not Richard Burton's translation. It's Andrew Lang's. Total misrepresentation. Lang's is an expurgated version of Burton's masterpiece. The whole opening story of the two kings, the orgies, the djinn and his girlfriend in the box has been omitted, stripped to a single paragraph, edited for children apparently. I have the whole set of Burton's One Thousand Nights and a Night, from the original edition, a set of 12 hardbound books, and wanted the Kindle version for easier reading in bed. Instead I got this inferior translation.

Fascinating...

Most of us are familiar with Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sinbad the Seaman or possibly even Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (with the famous quote “Open Sesame”) but the richness of many other tales in Arabian Nights is a lesson in proverbs, parables and discourse that is tough to surpass...the Ebony Horse; the Hunchback’s Tale; Judar and His Brothers; Julnar the Mermaid and Her Son Badar Basim of Persia and of course the comical Wily Dalilah and Her Daughter Zaynab along with several others.

Because of King Shahryar and his appalling treatment of women, enter the legendary Scheherazade to narrate these tales in order to not only keep herself alive, but all the other women in the kingdom. The outcome is of storybook flavor and sure to please.

Come, dear reader, spend a few weeks with The Arabian Nights and get a sense of the wonders of the Arab imaginary world. Be granted 3 wishes by awesome djinnis, be told sad tales of love lost and good men squandered by cursed princes, be amazed by the tale of the wondrous Ebony Horse. Run with thieves and murderers, keep company with princesses and Caliphs and Sultans, spend time with bustling merchants and industrious craftsmen, and hear their tales and triumphs and woes.

You know the stories of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, and Sindbad the Sailor, but when was the last time you read them in the original and caught all the little nuances and details? Here's your chance to do so again, and refresh your heart in these timeless stories.

Yes, the Burton translation isn't perfect (none of them are), but it is a rollicking good time with someone who clearly loved these stories and took his poetic license in the interests of trying to make them more exciting, more intense and more all-around fun.

Let clever Sheherezade lead you through 1001 nights of fun and excitement as she takes you through the imaginative world of the Arab mind of 1001 years ago and introduces you to a vivid cast of characters of all stripes and social classes. There are djinni-bearing magic lamps, rings of protection, flying horses, and gem-bearing trees; there are feasts and famines and paupers and rich men. Good usually triumphs, but sometimes the bad guys win, just often enough that you can't take anything for granted in the world of The Arabian Nights. Read these classic tales and go on a magic carpet ride through the Middle East and the medieval world!

I bit of warning for parents if you expect Disney like version of the stories then this book is not for you. It's not change to the point of being sugar coated for little kids as it does have violence in it. I recommend these book for older kids , teens and adults.Like another reviewer said this book is center around Muslim culture and can be bit confusing. The color and art work is also beautiful especially the cover with the blue and gold.

This version of "Arabian Nights" is nice (as are the illustrations) but this is not the version translated by Sir Richard Burton. Regardless of what the cover says, the first page reflects that the translation/version is by Andrew Lang. Formally called "The Arabian Nights Entertainments", it is available for free (with the illustrations even) from Project Gutenberg.

The 1885 Burton translation, complete with annotations, is the most interesting version of a very interesting book. Everyone has heard of the Arabian Nights, and imagine it to be a children's book, like Gulliver's Travels. What they don't know is that the Arabian Nights and Gulliver's Travels appear in different versions, one for young people and one for adults. The adult versions are not for children! Burton was a great enemy of "Mrs Grundy", the personification of Victorian prudery. He included all the tales, including the dirty ones, and was quite explicit. I admit that his eccentric style tends to get in the way of an easy understanding of the text. The annotations are not for children. His scholarship could at times be sloppy. Nevertheless, he was a great and fascinating man, and his great and fascinating version of the Arabian Nights deserves to be read in its entirety as an index to his personality.

This is one of those books you "should" read. An "improving" book, as it were. The stories tend to be repetitive, and the human behavior is wholly illogical at times...but these are fairy tales, of course.

The names of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad have penetrated the popular culture, and, unsurprisingly, the stories involving these characters are the best. That leaves plenty of other stories less well-known, and, related to that point, less entertaining for the reader. But one must be prepared at times for a bit of a slog.

The Zipes translation is decent, though at times lapsing waaaaay too far in the direction of contemporary vernacular. We (the royal "we") don't need Victorian-era censorship, but we also don't need any degree of conspicuous pandering to the MTV Generation. Zipes is also guilty of a fair amount of typos, and his Introduction and Afterword are pedantic and rather PC.

But, as alluded to earlier, this compendium of stories has been an influential part of Western culture since the 18th century, and thus deserves a look on that basis alone...and a few of the stories will indeed envelop you.

Arabian nights is a collection of tales from the Middle East and Asia that were compiled during the Islamic Golden Age. This version was translated and compiled by Sir Richard Burton in the 1880s. The advantage of his translation is that included the sexuality and violence of the original tales, something not done with earlier Victorian translations. This is considered one of the classic translations and despite being translated 130 years ago, is still very readable. I am not a literature expert by any means, but found this version to be very readable and the older style English used to enhance the feel of the stories. However, for those who want more modern translations or abridged versions, other translations may be better.

The book itself is very nice. It is blue leather with an intricate middle eastern pattern on the cover. The pages are gold leafed and the bookmark attached to the binding. The pictures are in color and enjoyable. At the same time, the book is not to heavy to hold and easy to read and at the same time looks great on the bookshelf.

As for the stories themselves, they are entertaining. The novel is told as a pair of women telling stories. Within each stories, are numerous smaller stories. The effect of some of these stories has been far reaching, including the stories of Sinbad and Aladin.

If you like Arabian Nights, I think you would enjoy this inexpensive and beautiful version. If like me, you are new to reading these stories, this serves as a great and readable book which will look nice in the library and should last for many decades.

Richard Burton's translation of "The Arabian Nights" is one of the oldest in existence and some people have a problem with this version; it's too old, antiquated, etc.; but for this reviewer, the very fact that it's an early translation lends the tales much of their charm; it underscores the fact that "The Arabian Nights" go back for hundreds of years, all the way back to "once upon a time". Richard Burton introduces us to Sharazad, that seductive storyteller who took the bull by the horns and dared to marry the sultan Shariyar who had been driven mad by the infidelity of his former wife and tried to exorcise the demons of her adultery by marrying a new wife every morning and slaying her that same night. Sharazad knows that a good tale can tame the savage beast much in the way music can, and she keeps the Sultan enchanted night after night with the tales that still enchant us in our own time. We all know about Aladdin and his magic lamp, and Ali Baba and the forty thieves, but there are loads of other treasures in this collection; my personal favorites, aside from Ali Baba, are the story of Ali the Persian (short, succinct, and very funny), and The Lady and Her Five Suitors, a hilarious tale of a woman who lures five men into a trap and then runs off with her boyfriend. And Sharazad, smart lady that she is, took care to insure her own future; not only does she regale her sultan with a thousand and one tales in as many nights, she also presents him with three children during that time, wins the heart of the sultan, and, we suppose, lives happily ever after.

No one knows where the tales originated. Burton suggests that the earliest may date from the 8th century A.D., and the latest may have been as recent as the 16th century, only 200 years before Antoine de Galland translated the tales into French and unfolded them like a magic carpet before the astonished and delighted eyes of his European readers. Burton translated them into English in 1885 and they have been weaving their own spell of enchantment for us ever since. When we open "The Arabian Nights" we step onto our own magic carpet and we're off on a ride of fun and fantasy that lasts until the last page when we close the book and come back down, reluctantly, to earth.

Judy Lind

I had just received my copy of The Arabian Nights and i have to say the you are most definitely getting your moneys worth. it is a beautiful book. the edge of the pages are gold and has its own ribbon to keep your place built in. i have not read any of the stories yet but i will write a second review if i am disappointed. it has so many stories some familiar and some i have never heard. i am excited to get into it. i hope it is something that would be valued in my book collection.

We are all familiar with the stories of Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Sinbad. But where did these tales come from? The answer lies in this wonderful (condensed) volume known as the 'Arabian Nights.'
The story is of a woman, Scheherazade, who marries a king. The king's custom is to spend one night with a woman and execute her in the morning. To avoid this, Scheherazade tells him a tale, but leaves part of it unfinished, thus gaining the king's interest and insuring her survival for another day so she can finish the tale. Being clever, she never finishes it, but keeps it continuously going, until the king finally spares her life.
The stories presented here, though often somewhat crude, have great moral lessons to be learned. The serve as a sort of moral reminder as to how a good person should act.
When Richard Burton translated the Nights, he collected as many manuscripts as possible and pieced together the tales. Many had been created centuries earlier, and were often told during gatherings among friends. Burton, through his unparalelled knack for translation, managed to capture all the magic and mystery that are the Arabian Nights.
Besides the delightful stories and good lessons to be learned, the Nights serve another purpose--they provide an intimate look at the culture of the time. By examining their legends, one can gain a basic understanding of how Arabic culture functions. There is as much to be learned about the people who tell these stories as there is from the stories themselves.
I read this book for historical and cultural value, and found it to be abundant in both. Besides that, though, I encountered a mesmerizing set of tales which will be entertaining to any audience, even (after some revision and editing) children.

Entertaining, sure, but highly repetitive.

Fairly surreal too - there's no problem with being suddenly transported to any fantastic palace or harem: wizards and odysseys abound.

Bloodthirsty? Absolutely. Adultery? Fornication? Constantly. Sex and brutal killing are mandatory - this is popular entertainment after all, and has the same odd acceptance among apparently God-fearing upright audiences as the similarly prurient and violent core of today's movies.

Some amusing structure in the almost infinite regress: within every tale there are a dozen more - a standard thing is, say, just as you're about to be beheaded you say,
"Oh, I wouldn't chop my head off now - that would be to make the mistake of the chiropodist and the princess."
"Really, what was that about?" says the headsman pausing in mid-swing.
"Well, one day..."
Remembering that the whole thing is within the structure of Shahrazad staving off her immanent execution by leaving the King in a cliff-hanger night after night.

Anyway, I'd had enough after a fortnight or two...

Translated by Sir Richard Burton. With Introductory Explanatory Notes and a Terminal Essay Upon the History of the Nights.

A collection of hundreds of stories compiled over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars from ancient Arabia and Persia, translated by Burton, Included is the story of the ruler Shahryar and his wife, Schererazde, as well as "Aladdin," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad." Incredible tales, gathered together in one collection.

I genuinely love it! The binding is gorgeous, as are the gilded pages. I love the illuminated chapter pages and the illustrations, and the story, while tough to read, (is written in the style of a King James Bible kinda) reads kind of like a wonderful ancient tome of stories from a forgotten time. It's pretty much exactly what I wanted out of my Tales of the Arabian Nights book. Just beware if you're a sensitive feminist, you probably won't enjoy it much if you can't overlook it as a historical artifact. (My girlfriend kind of hated it)

Very distracting are the numerous text errors that apparently are the result of the scanning software. Hardly a page goes by without some goofy word substituted for the original, aggravated by Burton's antique English and words he made up when there was no English equivalent of the Arabic. So, for instance, we get "golf-embroidered" instead of "gold-embroidered;" "shine" instead of "thine;" "cloth" instead of "doth;" "snorted and sparked" for Burton's "snorted and snarked," and on and on. Burton's translation of the rhymed prose and poetry can be a heavy slog for those accustomed to more lightweight versions of these tales, and these scanning errors make the situation even worse.

But considering what a good print copy of Burton's 16 volumes costs, this is a bargain, despite the mental trip-ups caused by the ridiculously inappropriate word substitutions. At least the footnotes are linked, and the table of contents works OK.

This unexpurgated edition is simply wonderful. The passages are filled with intricate descriptions and incredible woodcut artwork. Be aware though that while the individual stories contained are not cut, this is NOT a full volume of the whole of the Arabian Nights. Sir Burton's full Tales covers 10 volumes and an additional 7 supplemental volumes. Think of this delightful book as the "best of" the Arabian Nights, in a handsome hardcover edition that is both readable and visually appealing. It is a great intro to the tales of 1001 nights. This is not an edition for young children, as the tales appear in their original state, gory and "Grimm".

The book Arabian Knights tells many different stories like The Story of King Shahryar and His Brother. King Shahryar wants to go visit his brother, but his brother, Shah Zaman, comes to see him instead do to the loss of his wife.
That's just one of the 16 different stories in this book. There are a lot and I intend to read them all.
When I first started reading this book I thought I wouldn't like and just chose it for fun, but it's actually very interesting. Anyone that likes magic will like this book. My favorite story is the story The Tail of the Merchant and the Jinee.

Mrs. Sage's Class
AJ

This is a phenomenal selection of the intricate web of fantasy commonly known as the "Arabian Nights."
Captain Burton's translation remains contested amongst scholars for its subjective indulgement and commentary (among other things). Nevertheless, his was a critical and monumental 16-volume endeavor that brought to the English world the legendary tales Shahrazad told King Shahryar--who exectued his mistresses after one night so as to preserve fidelity--in order to remain alive. It proved the most comprhensive and entertaining, and stands as the definitive translation for many.
But why should you bother with Burton, when you could go with Lane or Galland? As a reader, if your desire is to fully experience these tales as closely as possible in capturing that sense of adventure, excitement, of magic and morality that has fascinated imaginations for centuries, Burton's "plain literal translation" certainly dazzles and entertains, vividly, powerfully, without disappointment. You shall be drawn into the world of the thousand nights and a night, of Islam and Jinns, through Burton's archaic though eloquent diction--a part of the veil of fantasy--and his ample knowledge of Middle Eastern culture.
The present edition offers a vital, "representative" selection of these neatly woven and intertwining tales in one volume.
* Note: This can be fun, very enjoyable reading with patience, but the lack of paragraph breaks and the language may prove challenging for some.
Also: the hardcover is definitely a better choice, as it has placed the selected footnotes on the bottom of the page they appear on rather than the back of the book - like the paperback.