Galland again returned to Paris where his familiarity with Arabic and Hebrew, Persian and Turkish recommended him to mm.  Thevenot and Bignon:  this first President of the Grand Council acknowledged his services by a pension.  He also became a favourite with D’Herbelot whose Bibliotheque Orientale, left unfinished at his death, he had the honour of completing and prefacing.[FN#202] President Bignon died within the twelvemonth, which made Galland attach himself in 1697 to M. Foucault, Councillor of State and Intendant (governor) of Caen in Lower Normandy, then famous for its academy:  in his new patron’s fine library and numismatic collection he found materials for a long succession of works, including a translation of the Koran.[FN#203] They recommended him strongly to the literary world and in 1701 he was made a member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

At Caen Galland issued in 1704,[FN#204] the first part of his Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes traduits en Francois which at once became famous as “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.”  Mutilated, fragmentary and paraphrastic though the tales were, the glamour of imagination, the marvel of the miracles and the gorgeousness and magnificence of the scenery at once secured an exceptional success; it was a revelation in romance, and the public recognised that it stood in presence of a monumental literary work.  France was a-fire with delight at a something so new, so unconventional, so entirely without purpose, religious, moral or philosophical:  the Oriental wanderer in his stately robes was a startling surprise to the easy-going and utterly corrupt Europe of the ancien regime with its indecently tight garments and perfectly loose morals.  “Ils produisirent,” said Charles Nodier, a genius in his way, “des le moment de leur publication, cet effet qui assure aux productions de l’esprit une vogue populaire, quoiqu’ils appartinssent a une litterature peu connue en France; et que ce genre de composition admit ou plutot exigeat des details de moeurs, de caractere, de costume et de localites absolument etrangers a toutes les idees etablies dans nos contes et nos romans.  On fut etonne du charme que resultait du leur lecture.  C’est que la verite des sentimens, la nouveaute des tableaux, une imagination feconde en prodiges, un coloris plein de chaleur, l’attrait d’une sensibilite sans pretention, et le sel d’un comique sans caricature, c’est que l’esprit et le naturel enfin plaisent partout, et plaisent a tout le monde."[FN#205]

The Contes Arabes at once made Galland’s name and a popular tale is told of them and him known to all reviewers who, however, mostly mangle it.  In the Biographie Universelle of Michaud[FN#206] we find:—­Dans les deux premiers volumes de ces contes l’exorde etait toujours, “Ma chere soeur, si vous ne dormez pas, faites-nous un de ces contes que vous savez.”  Quelques jeunes gens, ennuyes de cette plate uniformite, allerent une nuit qu’il faisait tres-grand froid, frapper