Author: Selected and edited by Andrew Lang. Illustrated by H.J. Ford.
Title: The Arabian Nights Entertainments.
Publisher: London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 39 Paternoster Row; New York and Bombay, 1898. First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7 x 5 inches.
Pages: xvi + 424 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original publisher’s blue pictorial cloth binding, lavishly gilt-stamped with an elaborate Oriental design depicting a winged genie above a minaret skyline under a crescent moon and stars, with gilt title and decorative figure on the spine (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt. A superb example of late Victorian book design by Longmans.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing and staining - as shown, neat early ink gift inscription on half-title: “To Ursula, with Uncle Roland’s love, Xmas 1898.”, bookplate of U.M. Boddington on the front pastedown - as shown).
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout by Henry Justice Ford, including a full-page frontispiece with tissue guard (“The Talisman is discovered in one of the jars”) and numerous other fine black-and-white plates within the text. Ford’s detailed line work brings Lang’s retellings vividly to life, from genies and enchanted horses to sultans and storytellers. (Complete).

Estimate: (USD 350 – 500).

The book: A splendid 1898 First edition of The Arabian Nights Entertainments, beautifully produced by Longmans, Green, and Co. under the editorial direction of Andrew Lang. This volume captures the spirit of the legendary One Thousand and One Nights—a treasury of Middle Eastern folklore and imagination—retold for English readers in Lang’s elegant prose. Stories include The Story of the Enchanted Horse, The Fisherman and the Genie, The Merchant and the Genie, and The Story of the Three Sisters, among many others.

The author: Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was a Scottish poet, classicist, and folklorist whose retellings of myth and folklore introduced countless readers to the world’s storytelling traditions. His Fairy Books and related anthologies are cornerstones of late Victorian children’s literature, uniting scholarship, narrative grace, and moral imagination.

The illustrator: Henry Justice Ford (1860–1941), one of the preeminent illustrators of the Golden Age, collaborated closely with Lang on his fairy-tale series. His dynamic compositions, delicate linework, and imaginative details perfectly complement Lang’s magical storytelling, making this Arabian Nights one of the most visually striking in the series.