Stories from The Thousand and One Nights

by Charles William Eliot (Editor), Stanley Lane-Poole (Editor), Edward William Lane (Translator)

Harvard Classics Volume 16 is part of a 51 volume set. the 16 does not refer to the volume number of the original work.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Fantasy, Literature, Fairy Tales, Short Stories, Folklore

441 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Charles William Eliot was an American academic who was selected as Harvard's president in 1869. He transformed the provincial college into the preeminent American research university. Eliot served the longest term as president in the university's history.

Reviews

[Meen]

I have ten or so books from this "Best Loved Classics" series, which my mom bought for me (along with an encyclopaedia, a set of science books, and several children's readers) from a traveling salesman when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. So, here I was with all this bound knowledge but no one to help me figure it all out... I spent hours in my room writing "reports" on my own from the encyclopaedia. I tried to read the "Selected Essays" volume of this series but couldn't make any sense of them at the time. I clearly remember wondering what an "essay" was! :) I never got into the "boys' stories" (like this one), except for an attempt at "Gulliver's Travels" before I was capable of it, but I did manage to read "Alice in Wonderland" on my own (and read it over and over again--even as an adult!). I also read a lot of the poems in the "Treasury of Poems." I remember not really understanding them, but I was captivated with how the words flowed.

[Makenzie Sorrells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A monument to the ageless art of storytelling that continues to influence the literature, music, and cinema of our own era.

Given that these tales were not originally intended to entertain a modern audience, I admittedly felt at times that they were a bit too backwards, gruesome, and wearisome. In spite of this, I genuinely enjoyed the premise of Scheherazade weaving together this collection of impossible and sometimes humorously ironic tales, each ending in a cliff-hanger, in hopes of prolonging her life before the Sultan.

Like the Iliad or the Bible, the Arabian Nights is not an easily digestible read for a quick reward, but it is one of the most accessible and treasured works we have from Medieval Middle Eastern culture. For what feels like just a little extra effort, the reward of being so easily transported centuries back into the same exotic tales that have entertained generations around the world, is both magical and worthwhile.

[Colby E · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reads like the Bible but the stories are good; the version I read (not this one) had a footnote that tried to assert that Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves was actually just a version of some Grimm fairy tale, despite the Arabian Nights being written like, a thousand years before.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had begun the book last year and paused to read other things but knew I would come back to it when I had a bit more time as this classic collector's edition that I had picked up somewhere way back in time. It's a collection of the stories that have a rich oral importance in the Middle East. Akin to other's like Canterbury Tales and the like, the vocabulary is not what I'm used to so it takes a discerning patience to move through the stories. Did I understand everything? No, but I didn't have to to appreciate the beauty of these classic stories.

[David Redden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good collection of some of the best stories in the Thousand and One Nights. Good translation too. It's a little challenging, particularly at first, but once you get in e groove it's not so bad, and gives the text a lofty oriental flavor despite the silliness of most of the stories.

I think it's remarkable how you can tell these stories are a product of an oral tradition propagated by storytellers who were all trying to one-up each other. So riches aren't just riches, they're the grandest riches you could ever imagine, with tons of detail about just how grand the riches are. And bad guys aren't just bad, they're horrible and scary and downright Evil, like the Fruits of the Devil. Then there's what I'll call the extra-meta humor. Imagine a story being told by a storyteller about a woman who, to get herself out of trouble, tells a story about a guy, who tells a story about another guy, who, to get out of trouble, tells a story. I also enjoyed the story about the barber who, to prove that he is a man of few words, tells six long stories about each of his six brothers, showing that they (not he) are men of many words, which is of course not a good thing.

I enjoy a good tall tale and can appreciate the centuries of talented yarn-telling that went into the Thousand and One Nights.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories and images, entire cities and palaces springing out of the imaginations of the tales' tellers. Rich tapestry of a culture built around hospitality, honor, deep and sometimes forbidden emotions.

Slowly working my way through this.

[Ixby Wuff]

Excerpt from Stories From the Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 16: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments On beholding this scene, the world became black before his eyes; and he said within himself, If this is the case when I have not departed from the city, what will be the conduct of this vile woman while I am sojourn ing with my brother? He then drew his sword, and slew them both in the bed: after which he immediately returned, gave orders for departure, and journeyed to his brother's capital. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

[Pastor Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this is considered a big deal by some. I've read reviews in the past by people who loved this book. But if it weren't for some laughs that I got while reading it, I couldn't give it three stars.

Also known as, "The Arabian Nights," you will be introduced to Sinbad the Sailor, the Genie in a bottle and other less recognizable characters and stories. And, of course, they will have little in common with the Disney and other Hollywood versions.

It's one of those books that really is required reading because this work holds such importance in the world of literature and the literature of the world. It has been in print in English for close to 300 years. I give one star for any such book right off the bat. Another for the laughs, as I said. (But you will have to pay close attention if you want to "get it".)

The third star was for the fact that there were times when I did enjoy the narrative. There were times when I started thinking, "Maybe this isn't so bad, after all." But within a few pages I would be feeling that feeling I get when I'm reading out of a sense of necessity or duty rather than really enjoying what I am reading. And I wish to publicly offer my apologies to my wife who has to hear me groan and complain during those moments.

[Joe Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book. I didn’t know this before reading, but apparently “The Thousand and One Arabian Nights” has many different versions. While they all follow the same frame story and include many of the same tales, they differ in length (some having more, some having less than 1001 tales).

This book is a great option for an introductory reading. It contains a quality range of tales, is somewhat censored, and includes most of the more famous stories (including “Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" - two stories not traditionally found in Arabian Nights collections, but that are great additions).

I don’t feel compelled to read a multi-volume collection of all 1001 (or more) tales. This book was detailed enough enough to fill that desire. That said, I liked this book enough that I wouldn’t pass up on the opportunity to buy a multi-volume collection someday and read bits out of from time to time.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read all the stories. I doubt anyone except the most serious scholars have. The 1001 Nights feel infinite: so many editions, so many translations, so many stories. Of the ones I read, my favorite was Aladdin. The plot moved quickly and the characters felt more fleshed out than in other stories. It was very, very different than Disney's version, so it kept me guessing.

How do you rate a timeless classic that you didn't really love? I'm glad I read the stories, and I may return to them in the future. But that's enough for now.

[Larry Wegman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only 91 nights. Still, while rather repetitive, you can see how Scheherazade kept cliff-hanging the sultan to keep his interest. She kept mine, too.

[alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

dense but also good but also dense

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was by far, hands down, without question, and no doubt the worst reading experience ever in my life. So awful, indeed, that I'm convinced it can never be surpassed. The only reason I suffered myself through the 1,836 pages (!!!) across the three volumes is because, combined, it is #6 on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I committed myself, so I had to do it. Otherwise, I would never have dreamed (nightmared?) to put myself through such torture. There was nothing interesting here, nothing captivating, nothing that grabbed my interest, and it was filled to spilling with ultra-violence, all of it gratuitous, purposeless, and immorally nasty. Every page was filled with beheadings, behandings, belimbings, bedigitings, and belifings, sometimes completely out of the blue. Without warning, you could get passages like this: "I gazed longingly into her eyes and beheld our beauty - before I stomped a foot in her ass and lopped off her head." What? What just happened? How did we get from there to here? What on earth is all this irredeemable, nonsensical garbage? When researching the book, I came across a thread where an avid reader revealed that he had read all eight known English translations of the entire Nights. WHAT? How is that even possible? Why would a man do that? This stuff is AWFUL tripe, the worst kind that could be committed to paper, and entirely useless and valueless.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

" I just finished this book after starting it two years ago on a fun solo trip that I took to Victoria, BC. I spent the entire weekend sitting in various coffee shops and tea houses reading this book. It was a perfect thing to do on a recreational trip with it's stories of intrigue and mystery. It took, this group reading it for me to finish the last hundred pages or so though.

I was most interested in seeing how pervasive faith and God was to the Middle Eastern culture. Every single story has God thanked as the result of a blessing given or a curse avoided. I really liked the phrase, "until they were visited by the terminator of delights and separator of companions".

I also thought it was fun learning a whole host of new words such as Jinn, wezir, Khan etc. Not sure I will make the effort to read the longer version of this, but it was a fun read.

I've done a longer review @ www.magic-and-mystery.blogspot.com

[Melissa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Nights quite a bit. The stories are varied in terms of subject matter and genre, and there's plenty of ladies with magical powers, genies and family drama to keep one entertained. My main regret is that the Lane translation is bowdlerized and has been purged of all the things Victorians would find distasteful, namely the sexy bits. I think I'll pick up a different version one day and read it again once i've had a little time.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book seemed to drag on and on and on. The story of Sindibad went quicker and everything afterwards was fine. This particular version of the story doesn't tell you what happened to Shahrazad after the 1,001 nights were over, though.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant! If you can forgive the androcentrism and patriarchy, that is. `Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is the best. Funny and everyone trying to double-cross everyone else. It's nice to read these stories. Kind of fills in the holes left by the Bugs Bunny and Disney versions.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The point of the story was to tell a meandering story that wasted time. I guess I should've expected it to meander and feel like a waste of time. It was interesting to see the original versions of familiar tales.

[Tom]

I read this as part of my push through the Harvard Classics. Interesting to see some stories from a different culture...the amount of fatalism was striking. My favorites were probably the stories at the end, Aladdin and Ali Baba, which are not actually from The Thousand and One Nights.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really looking forward to reading this book in a good translation, because this wasn't it.