Pilpay's Fables

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) - soldier, explorer, linguist, anthropologist, literatus - is perhaps best known as co-discoverer (with partner John Hanning Speke), of the source of the Nile, and the first translator into English of the "Thousand And One Nights", the "Karma Sutra", and "The Perfumed Garden". His publications number over 100 in all. This text is the first genuine new pubilcation by Burton for over a century, the original manuscript (ironically his first) having been discovered in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, in the mid-190s by Tom Cox, who has written the introduction. It is a translation from Hindi of these famous Sanskrit tales written over 2000 years ago, in which each tale - acted out by a cast of animals and people - is intended to offer an important lesson in life, often one that evolves from the protagonists' various misfortunes. The recently discovered manuscript is the only one know to have survived an 1861 warehouse fire, Burton's wife Isobel's burning of all his papers after his death, the Blitz and a library flood.