St. James's Gazette, September 12th.
"One of the most important translations to which a great English scholar has ever devoted himself is now in the press. For three decades Captain Burton has been more or less engaged on his translation of the 'Arabian Nights,' the latest of the many versions of that extraordinary story which has been made into English, the only one at all worthy of a great original."
South Eastern Herald, October 31st.
"At Mr. Quaritch's trade sale the other day, Captain Burton made an interesting speech regarding the 'Thousand and One Nights,' of which the gist was to show that his translation performs a double office. It is not only a faithful and racy version of the true original, but it also represents a better text than any which has been hitherto accessible in print or manuscript. He, in fact, produced for his own use, and by collation of the existing materials, a careful, critical recension of the original; and his rendering may, therefore, claim to stand towards the 'Alf Laylah' in the same manner as the Latin version of Plato, by Marsilius Ficinus, towards the Greek text."
Morning Advertiser.
"Captain Burton, thirty-three years ago, went in the disguise of an Indian pilgrim to Mecca and Al-Medinah, and no one capable of giving the world the result of his experience has so minute, so exhaustive a knowledge of Arab and Oriental life generally. Hence the work now begun—only a limited number of students can ever see—which is simply priceless to any one who concerns himself with such subjects, and may be regarded as marking an era in the annals of Oriental translation."