Abstract
This paper aims to reconstruct the editorial tradition which began in the early eighteenth century with the first English version of Ali Baba, and the forty thieves. During the next two centuries, this version gave origin to a great number of editions and adaptations into English, which were directly or indirectly mediated by Antoine Galland’s French version, who was responsible in the first place for introducing this tale into the Arabic compilation known as The Thousand and One Nights. It is my intention to analyze the different literary, translation and editorial procedures used by the agents involved in the tale’s popularization, fromits indirect translation into English to its adaptation into the different formats of chapbooks published throughout the nineteenth century.
Keywords:
Translation Studies; Adaptation Studies; Chapbooks; The Thousand and One Nights; Ali Baba, and the Forty Thieves