Richard Burton

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (with Annotated Illustrations) Richard Burton

Preface: IN the literature of all countries there will be found a certain number of works treating especially of love. Everywhere the subject is dealt with differently, and from various points of view. In the present publication it is proposed to give a complete translation of what is considered the standard work on love in Sanscrit literature, and which is called the 'Vatsyayana Kama Sutra', or Aphorisms on Love, by Vatsyayana. The first English translation of the Kama Sutra was privately printed in 1883 by the Orientalist Sir Richard Francis Burton. He did not translate it, but did edit it to suit the Victorian British attitudes. The unedited translation was produced by the Indian scholar Bhagwan Lal Indrajit with the assistance of a student Shivaram Parshuram Bhide, under the guidance of Burton's friend, the Indian civil servant Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot. According to Wendy Doniger, the Burton version is a "flawed English translation" but influential as modern translators and abridged versions of Kamasutra even in the Indian languages such as Hindi are re-translations of the Burton version, rather than the original Sanskrit manuscript. About the Series: LOVE by Great Masters in LiteratureVOLUME 1. Symposium by Plato / The Loves (Amores) & The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) by Ovid (Illustrated by Jean De Bosschere) VOLUME 2. The Romance of Tristan & Iseult by Joseph Bédier / The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare (Illustrated by John Gilbert) VOLUME 3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Illustrated) / Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. (David Herbert) LawrenceVOLUME 4. Brontë Sisters: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Illustrated by Frederick Henry Townsend & Annotated)) / Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. VOLUME 5. The Lily of the Valley (Le Lys dans la vallée) by Honoré de Balzac / The Charterhouse of Parma (La Chartreuse de Parme) by Stendhal / Sentimental Education (L'Éducation sentimentale, 1869) - Vol.1 & 2 - Illustrated. By Gustave Flaubert. VOLUME.6. A Pair of Blue Eyes (Illustrated by James Abbott Pasquier) & Far from the Madding Crowd (Illustrated by Helen Paterson Allingham) by Thomas Hardy. VOLUME 7. Aphrodite: Ancient Manners (Illustrated by Ed Zier) & The Songs of Bilitis (Illustrated by Willy Pogany) by Pierre LouÿsVOLUME 8. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (Illustrated).