The Arabian Nights - Tales of Wonder and Magnificence

by Padraic Colum

A famous collection of Persian, Indian, and Arabian folktales. Supposedly, the legendary Scheherazade told these stories to her husband the sultan, a different tale every night for 1,001 days; therefore, the collection is sometimes called The Thousand and One Nights.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

371 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1923

About the author

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival. (Source)

Reviews

[Heather Tully · Rating 4 out of 5]

7th family read aloud of the year.

[Anna Cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up in the middle school library, figuring it could be a nice replacement for the 1000+ page versions. In a way it was: it's the frame of Shahrazad telling stories every night to save her life, and a nice little selection of a few of her stories. The language is inconsistently archaic, with some selections full of "thou dost" and "thou didst", and others not at all King James-y. The whole thing was much less entertaining than I had hoped, and it turns out this abridged version is based off Edward Lane's Victorian Era baudlerized translation. Those facts are probably related, right?

I ended up having more fun reading all about the Arabian Nights on Wikipedia instead of in this book...

2.5 stars, but I'm feeling stingy and will round down.

[Chris H-C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this if you want to get the distinct impression that Sindbad should've stayed on dry land, and anyone who travelled with him after the second voyage was deeply uninformed.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly enchanting, with the delightful well-known tales standing out. A lot of angry sultans and wise young women, foolish and heroic young men and a lot of happily ever after. Some tales are very similar to Grimm's. Enjoyed the read for 1001 Books.