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The Arabian Nights #1-16
The Arabian Nights: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night; Complete Edition
The stories of The Arabian Nights (and stories within stories, and stories within stories within stories) are famously told by the Princess Shahrazad, under the threat of death should the king lose interest in her tale. Collected over the centuries from India, Persia, and Arabia, and ranging from adventure fantasies, vivacious erotica, and animal fables, to pointed Sufi tales, these stories provided the daily entertainment of the medieval Islamic world at the height of its glory. No one knows exactly when a given story originated, and many circulated orally for centuries before being written down; but in the process of telling and retelling, they were modified to reflect the general life and customs of the Arab society that adapted them—a distinctive synthesis that marks the cultural and artistic history of Islam.
7453 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1925
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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January 27, 2022
Volume One (July 5 - August 1, 2020)
Somehow I managed to reach my late 40s in a state of nearly complete oblivion to everything Arabian Nights. I only knew what the basic structure of the narrative, but I had no idea that stories such as Aladdin and Ali Baba and the forty thieves were from this collection of tales. It wasn’t until I read John Barth’s The Friday Book and caught his contagious enthusiasm for everything Arabian Nights - his love of the structure, his crushing fanboy doting on Scheherazade, his deep study of the work and how it informs so much of Western Literature - that I became hooked. It took me about six months of searching antiquarian shops until I found a 16 volume set of the work, unabridged and translated by the polarizing Sir Richard Francis Burton. It’s been sitting on my shelf for three years and what better time than a slow-boil, world crushing pandemic to lose yourself in 5,000+ pages of Eastern Literature?
This set was privately published by the Burton Club - there are no dates inside any of the volumes, but a bit of research tells me it was in the early 1900s (1903-1906). My copy has been well preserved, and other than the annoyance of the owner signing his/her last name in dark ink on the first blank page (does anyone still do this??), I am otherwise impressed with the binding, paper, font and printing. You can tell that the people who put this project together loved what they were doing. Oh yes, and the books smell fantastic.
Volume 1 begins with Burton’s Translator’s Preface, a fifteen page background that helps the reader understand more fully how much Burton both absolutely loved this work, but also how much he loved Eastern literature, religion, people, language, etc. After reading the Preface I went down a deep Burton hole to read more about him, and regardless of his tremendous failings, he is certainly a rich and interesting character. This set contains all of Burton’s annotations, and you can really see his deep love of the text in his illuminating explanations of Arabic words and cultural norms that without his notes us Westerners would completely miss so much of the nuances of the story. Nearly every page has at least one annotation, and some pages have paragraph long entries that I never felt like skipping. Even when Burton is going to great lengths to explain why he chose to translate a specific Arabic word the way that he did, it makes me smile to think how much time, effort and care he put into making sure the reader understands his choices, even if we would never be the wiser. Simply put, he never mails it in.
But Burton also includes his opinions and observations, many of which made me wince. Even though the Arabian Nights is narrated by the incomparable Scheherazade (best narrator in any work of fiction, hands down), the stories are very male-centric. They are also misogynistic, at times homophobic and always terribly racist. If a character has dark skin, he is almost certainly a villain, and more times than not he is cuckolding a prince, king or wazir. This is basically how the Arabian Nights came to be - but I don’t want to spoil anything more about the story (I didn’t know it, and so the structure was a delight to learn as I read the opening pages before Scheherazade comes on the scene). So yes, reading this book in 2020 in a world very different from the time and place it was created makes for uncomfortable moments, and when you add a Burton annotation such as this one, there’s definitely some squirming:
Yeah, that’s awful to put down here and read again, and it rightfully makes Burton look terrible (thus the polarizing comment earlier). There are more entries like this, fortunately not many of them having to do with sexual organs, and when Burton gives his opinion on non-scientific racist and/or misogynistic nonsense, I just roll my eyes and move on.
This first volume ends mid-way through the 34th night. It gave me great reading pleasure to soak in Scheherazade’s narrative - her stories are rich and compelling, the characters are interesting and varied, and oftentimes she employs my favorite part of the work so far: the nested stories.
Nested story arcs have become so prevalent in Western Literature (and have been done very well in many books), but none of them approach the level of Arabian Nights. Is this work the first one in the history of literature that utilizes this device? Certainly a story within a story is as old as storytelling itself, but the deep, multilayered construction of tales is so well done by Scheherazade, I would find myself time and again getting that feeling of reading glee when I’m forced to really pay attention. When Scheherazade has me three or four tales deep, I’m grinning like a fiend, wondering how this is all going to work itself out.
Because this is all a single work I’ve come to realize the only way to really take a short break from it is to pause in a place where Scheherazade has completed one of her nested tales. While I was reading the first volume, if I put it down for more than a couple of days while in the middle of a nestling, I was forced to start over from the beginning in order to be sure I didn’t lose any part of the thread. I haven’t started volume two yet, but I’m going to have to very soon, because the Tailor’s Tale must be finished, and Scheherazade waits for no one.
Volume Two (August 8 - November 9, 2020)
The second volume of Scheherazade's tale is dominated by the Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan. Taken out of this 16 volume set and put into a novel of its own it would stretch at least 300 pages. I realize I wax ecstatic too frequently here on Goodreads about author and book crushes, but even if the remaining 5,000 pages of Scheherazade's narrative fail me, this particular story was worth the investment.
I am loathe to recap any plot recaps in my reviews, and I won't change that policy here. I checked online and there are only a few instances where this story is mentioned (the Wikipedia entry is simply execrable - do not read it), so to do it any justice one must just hunker down and let Scheherazade do her work. The characters are fully imagined, the story has page-turning twists and turns, and as a reader (or, in the case of the story - the king listening to Scheherazade's telling of the King and his children) it's simply mesmerizing. How often do we read the same old tropes, or see them in movies, to the point where nothing feels original - or dangerous - anymore? For Game of Thrones fans, you know how you felt as you read the books and watched the shows through its really great seasons and you felt untethered, that anything goes? Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan feels exactly like that. Frankly, I'm shocked that since Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO et al are always looking for new content that this story hasn't been given the green light for a multi-season show.
Volume Two ends at a critical point in the Tale of King Omar, on the eve of an important event (I'll give no spoilers!!) and one of the characters needs to take his mind off of things, so he calls upon his majordomo to regale him with story-time to divert his attention. Volume Two ends with two stories (the second one nested within the first and bleeding into Volume Three in a handful of pages) that are diversions for said character. The tension is real, and I can't help but think about what is about to happen after these stories finish. I took this as an opportunity for a short break from Scheherazade's narrative, but as 2021 begins I'm looking forward to getting back to her Siren call and learn the conclusion to this tremendous story.
If you are interested in reading it, you can do so for free via Project Gutenberg (you can start the story cold without having need to read anything prior to it as a setup - all you need to know is that it is another one of Scheherazade's stories told to the king over a series of nights).
http://gutenberg.org/files/3436/3436-...
Volume Three (April 17 - October 31, 2021)
Scheherazade continues to regale the Sultan with the Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan a full third way through Volume 3. You can feel it as the story is finally reaching its denouement, but it is equally clear that Scheherazade isn’t padding the story in order to delay death by another day. But all stories have to end, and when this phenomenal tale of King Omar is complete, you can feel the air go out of the room. His response to the end of this long tale, unspooled night after night for months, is draw dropping. The Sultan has been spoiled, he views Scheherazade as a story jukebox. For a master storyteller, this is clearly not an issue, for Scheherazade obliges and spins new tales as he continues to direct her over the next few stories as to the subject matter.
It’s also enjoyable to envision what happens on these evenings when stories aren’t being told. There are some nights where Scheherazade barely gets started and the evening ends (a page or two of text), and others where the Sultan is clearly desirous of a longer bedtime story. I also love the occasional dialogue between Scheherazade and the Sultan between stories. In Volume 3 there is an exchange that reveals changes in their relationship - and by extension, the impact they have begun to have on the Sultan.
Somehow I managed to reach my late 40s in a state of nearly complete oblivion to everything Arabian Nights. I only knew what the basic structure of the narrative, but I had no idea that stories such as Aladdin and Ali Baba and the forty thieves were from this collection of tales. It wasn’t until I read John Barth’s The Friday Book and caught his contagious enthusiasm for everything Arabian Nights - his love of the structure, his crushing fanboy doting on Scheherazade, his deep study of the work and how it informs so much of Western Literature - that I became hooked. It took me about six months of searching antiquarian shops until I found a 16 volume set of the work, unabridged and translated by the polarizing Sir Richard Francis Burton. It’s been sitting on my shelf for three years and what better time than a slow-boil, world crushing pandemic to lose yourself in 5,000+ pages of Eastern Literature?
This set was privately published by the Burton Club - there are no dates inside any of the volumes, but a bit of research tells me it was in the early 1900s (1903-1906). My copy has been well preserved, and other than the annoyance of the owner signing his/her last name in dark ink on the first blank page (does anyone still do this??), I am otherwise impressed with the binding, paper, font and printing. You can tell that the people who put this project together loved what they were doing. Oh yes, and the books smell fantastic.
Kids, don’t do this to your books
Volume 1 begins with Burton’s Translator’s Preface, a fifteen page background that helps the reader understand more fully how much Burton both absolutely loved this work, but also how much he loved Eastern literature, religion, people, language, etc. After reading the Preface I went down a deep Burton hole to read more about him, and regardless of his tremendous failings, he is certainly a rich and interesting character. This set contains all of Burton’s annotations, and you can really see his deep love of the text in his illuminating explanations of Arabic words and cultural norms that without his notes us Westerners would completely miss so much of the nuances of the story. Nearly every page has at least one annotation, and some pages have paragraph long entries that I never felt like skipping. Even when Burton is going to great lengths to explain why he chose to translate a specific Arabic word the way that he did, it makes me smile to think how much time, effort and care he put into making sure the reader understands his choices, even if we would never be the wiser. Simply put, he never mails it in.
Annotations ahoy!
But Burton also includes his opinions and observations, many of which made me wince. Even though the Arabian Nights is narrated by the incomparable Scheherazade (best narrator in any work of fiction, hands down), the stories are very male-centric. They are also misogynistic, at times homophobic and always terribly racist. If a character has dark skin, he is almost certainly a villain, and more times than not he is cuckolding a prince, king or wazir. This is basically how the Arabian Nights came to be - but I don’t want to spoil anything more about the story (I didn’t know it, and so the structure was a delight to learn as I read the opening pages before Scheherazade comes on the scene). So yes, reading this book in 2020 in a world very different from the time and place it was created makes for uncomfortable moments, and when you add a Burton annotation such as this one, there’s definitely some squirming:
Debauched women prefer Negroes on accounts of the size of their parts. I measured one man in Somalia who, when quiescent, numbered nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the Negro race and of African animals; e.g. the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially whitewashed.
Yeah, that’s awful to put down here and read again, and it rightfully makes Burton look terrible (thus the polarizing comment earlier). There are more entries like this, fortunately not many of them having to do with sexual organs, and when Burton gives his opinion on non-scientific racist and/or misogynistic nonsense, I just roll my eyes and move on.
This first volume ends mid-way through the 34th night. It gave me great reading pleasure to soak in Scheherazade’s narrative - her stories are rich and compelling, the characters are interesting and varied, and oftentimes she employs my favorite part of the work so far: the nested stories.
Nested story arcs have become so prevalent in Western Literature (and have been done very well in many books), but none of them approach the level of Arabian Nights. Is this work the first one in the history of literature that utilizes this device? Certainly a story within a story is as old as storytelling itself, but the deep, multilayered construction of tales is so well done by Scheherazade, I would find myself time and again getting that feeling of reading glee when I’m forced to really pay attention. When Scheherazade has me three or four tales deep, I’m grinning like a fiend, wondering how this is all going to work itself out.
Because this is all a single work I’ve come to realize the only way to really take a short break from it is to pause in a place where Scheherazade has completed one of her nested tales. While I was reading the first volume, if I put it down for more than a couple of days while in the middle of a nestling, I was forced to start over from the beginning in order to be sure I didn’t lose any part of the thread. I haven’t started volume two yet, but I’m going to have to very soon, because the Tailor’s Tale must be finished, and Scheherazade waits for no one.
Volume Two (August 8 - November 9, 2020)
The second volume of Scheherazade's tale is dominated by the Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan. Taken out of this 16 volume set and put into a novel of its own it would stretch at least 300 pages. I realize I wax ecstatic too frequently here on Goodreads about author and book crushes, but even if the remaining 5,000 pages of Scheherazade's narrative fail me, this particular story was worth the investment.
I am loathe to recap any plot recaps in my reviews, and I won't change that policy here. I checked online and there are only a few instances where this story is mentioned (the Wikipedia entry is simply execrable - do not read it), so to do it any justice one must just hunker down and let Scheherazade do her work. The characters are fully imagined, the story has page-turning twists and turns, and as a reader (or, in the case of the story - the king listening to Scheherazade's telling of the King and his children) it's simply mesmerizing. How often do we read the same old tropes, or see them in movies, to the point where nothing feels original - or dangerous - anymore? For Game of Thrones fans, you know how you felt as you read the books and watched the shows through its really great seasons and you felt untethered, that anything goes? Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan feels exactly like that. Frankly, I'm shocked that since Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO et al are always looking for new content that this story hasn't been given the green light for a multi-season show.
Volume Two ends at a critical point in the Tale of King Omar, on the eve of an important event (I'll give no spoilers!!) and one of the characters needs to take his mind off of things, so he calls upon his majordomo to regale him with story-time to divert his attention. Volume Two ends with two stories (the second one nested within the first and bleeding into Volume Three in a handful of pages) that are diversions for said character. The tension is real, and I can't help but think about what is about to happen after these stories finish. I took this as an opportunity for a short break from Scheherazade's narrative, but as 2021 begins I'm looking forward to getting back to her Siren call and learn the conclusion to this tremendous story.
If you are interested in reading it, you can do so for free via Project Gutenberg (you can start the story cold without having need to read anything prior to it as a setup - all you need to know is that it is another one of Scheherazade's stories told to the king over a series of nights).
http://gutenberg.org/files/3436/3436-...
Volume Three (April 17 - October 31, 2021)
Scheherazade continues to regale the Sultan with the Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan a full third way through Volume 3. You can feel it as the story is finally reaching its denouement, but it is equally clear that Scheherazade isn’t padding the story in order to delay death by another day. But all stories have to end, and when this phenomenal tale of King Omar is complete, you can feel the air go out of the room. His response to the end of this long tale, unspooled night after night for months, is draw dropping. The Sultan has been spoiled, he views Scheherazade as a story jukebox. For a master storyteller, this is clearly not an issue, for Scheherazade obliges and spins new tales as he continues to direct her over the next few stories as to the subject matter.
It’s also enjoyable to envision what happens on these evenings when stories aren’t being told. There are some nights where Scheherazade barely gets started and the evening ends (a page or two of text), and others where the Sultan is clearly desirous of a longer bedtime story. I also love the occasional dialogue between Scheherazade and the Sultan between stories. In Volume 3 there is an exchange that reveals changes in their relationship - and by extension, the impact they have begun to have on the Sultan.
December 30, 2014
It took me a long, long time to finish this, but I did. Here are some things I discovered...
Do not read this unabridged on a Kindle. The Kindle version contains many, many typos. For example, the old long s that is really supposed to be pronounced as a t (usually in a th combo), is printed as an s. So, in many places, "thine" becomes "shine". Funny, but also extraordinarily confusing at first.
There is also no easy way to read the footnotes in each volume. So I simply skipped them. I wouldn't have, normally, but there were 14 volumes, each with several hundred footnotes, and no links. Was not searching for them manually, and reading them all at once at the end of the volume loses all the context.
Some stories were really funny. The woman who had two vaginas (she didn't, but she tricked her husband into a 3-way this way. Seriously.) The guy that choked on a fishbone, then his body got left in various places around town because people didn't want to be blamed for his murder (way funnier than it sounds). And a few others.
Lots of stories were ridiculous and convoluted and had no logical reason for people to act the way they did. Example, a prince wants to marry a particular princess. In the given time period, the two fathers would have normally worked out a deal, done the marriage, and everyone would have gone on with their lives. In the story, the prince pretends to be a merchant, wins the princess's affection, sneaks into her bedroom, gets caught and nearly killed by her dad, then his dad rides in looking for his son. And THEN the dads make a deal and the wedding happens.
There were probably 20 stories that followed that basic formula.
Other things I've learned from this book:
Genies don't always live in lamps. Sometimes they live in rings.
Disney appears to have made up the three wish thing. Or it came from a different source. These genies were your slave until you were tricked out of the ring/lamp/magic doohickey.
If you tell someone you're a merchant, they'll totally believe you without question. If you later tell them you lied and are really a prince/sultan/princess, they will be totally fine with it, and also believe you immediately.
Identity theft was a problem long before they had credit cards.
A cup of water in the wrong hands can pose a serious problem for you. Unless you always wanted to be a dog.
The various people that wrote this book were REALLY racist. And misogynistic, even though the frame story is pretty empowering for Sharazad.
Everyone cheats. Except when it's true love. Then they pretend that they're going to cheat, and dress up their potential lovers as babies so you both can laugh at them.
Royalty is ALWAYS beautiful. Also, beautiful people are probably of noble birth. Then again, the ancient Greek books taught me this.
Unibrows were once considered sexy.
In the European version of Bluebeard, the girl is left alone in the castle and dies for her curiosity. In the Arabic version, it's the guy, and he gets a sexy wife as a reward (whose name he may or may not ever learn). I'm not sure why the pretty teen princesses told him to definitely NOT go in that last door. Jealousy? Also, why did seven teenage princesses all live alone in a castle in the middle of nowhere? Questions I'll never know the answers to.
Do not read this unabridged on a Kindle. The Kindle version contains many, many typos. For example, the old long s that is really supposed to be pronounced as a t (usually in a th combo), is printed as an s. So, in many places, "thine" becomes "shine". Funny, but also extraordinarily confusing at first.
There is also no easy way to read the footnotes in each volume. So I simply skipped them. I wouldn't have, normally, but there were 14 volumes, each with several hundred footnotes, and no links. Was not searching for them manually, and reading them all at once at the end of the volume loses all the context.
Some stories were really funny. The woman who had two vaginas (she didn't, but she tricked her husband into a 3-way this way. Seriously.) The guy that choked on a fishbone, then his body got left in various places around town because people didn't want to be blamed for his murder (way funnier than it sounds). And a few others.
Lots of stories were ridiculous and convoluted and had no logical reason for people to act the way they did. Example, a prince wants to marry a particular princess. In the given time period, the two fathers would have normally worked out a deal, done the marriage, and everyone would have gone on with their lives. In the story, the prince pretends to be a merchant, wins the princess's affection, sneaks into her bedroom, gets caught and nearly killed by her dad, then his dad rides in looking for his son. And THEN the dads make a deal and the wedding happens.
There were probably 20 stories that followed that basic formula.
Other things I've learned from this book:
Genies don't always live in lamps. Sometimes they live in rings.
Disney appears to have made up the three wish thing. Or it came from a different source. These genies were your slave until you were tricked out of the ring/lamp/magic doohickey.
If you tell someone you're a merchant, they'll totally believe you without question. If you later tell them you lied and are really a prince/sultan/princess, they will be totally fine with it, and also believe you immediately.
Identity theft was a problem long before they had credit cards.
A cup of water in the wrong hands can pose a serious problem for you. Unless you always wanted to be a dog.
The various people that wrote this book were REALLY racist. And misogynistic, even though the frame story is pretty empowering for Sharazad.
Everyone cheats. Except when it's true love. Then they pretend that they're going to cheat, and dress up their potential lovers as babies so you both can laugh at them.
Royalty is ALWAYS beautiful. Also, beautiful people are probably of noble birth. Then again, the ancient Greek books taught me this.
Unibrows were once considered sexy.
In the European version of Bluebeard, the girl is left alone in the castle and dies for her curiosity. In the Arabic version, it's the guy, and he gets a sexy wife as a reward (whose name he may or may not ever learn). I'm not sure why the pretty teen princesses told him to definitely NOT go in that last door. Jealousy? Also, why did seven teenage princesses all live alone in a castle in the middle of nowhere? Questions I'll never know the answers to.
December 22, 2017
Fantastic stories covering several volumes that took me almost two years to complete. You can see the influence it has had in several stories, TV shows, Movies and Series both new and old. Many of the themes are timeless. Simply put: This is a must read! My time is limited at the moment, so I'll have to circle back to this review at another time and offer more insight and detail but if you're considering reading this, stop considering and pick up this collection right away!
May 3, 2024
Like Your Life Depended On it
Ancient survival tales about telling stories as though your life depended on it. And, in this instance, it did. Of course you already know the many stories that became grouped in these collections... or do you? I recommend this translation as an excellent choice. This is the Burton translation that leaves nothing out, rather than the earlier Lane translation, which is suitable for children.
Remember when getting lost was an adventure? All the tales we loved from childhood are here to come alive from the pages once again. And, if as a child you had questions because of some of the plot holes; the answers are more obvious in this complete edition. It starts with a frame tale, to which is added a number of tales taking place in Arabia. These 'Arabian Nights' traveled around the Far East: Persia, India, and so on, adding on tales along the way. The original collector of the manuscript kept adding his own tales since the total was no where near the thousand mark (which really just meant 'a really big number' to start with.) You may choose to just read the Arabic core.
Or you may want to read them all, since some of the more beloved tales were added on in a more Westernized way (much like Taco Bell is really the American version of pretend Mexican food.) So, what we get beyond the Arabic core is a multicultural experience. It is a classic piece of literature that is still available in all its pre-Disney glory, for those who long to travel back that far. A word of caution: This translation includes content not suitable for children.
Ancient survival tales about telling stories as though your life depended on it. And, in this instance, it did. Of course you already know the many stories that became grouped in these collections... or do you? I recommend this translation as an excellent choice. This is the Burton translation that leaves nothing out, rather than the earlier Lane translation, which is suitable for children.
Remember when getting lost was an adventure? All the tales we loved from childhood are here to come alive from the pages once again. And, if as a child you had questions because of some of the plot holes; the answers are more obvious in this complete edition. It starts with a frame tale, to which is added a number of tales taking place in Arabia. These 'Arabian Nights' traveled around the Far East: Persia, India, and so on, adding on tales along the way. The original collector of the manuscript kept adding his own tales since the total was no where near the thousand mark (which really just meant 'a really big number' to start with.) You may choose to just read the Arabic core.
Or you may want to read them all, since some of the more beloved tales were added on in a more Westernized way (much like Taco Bell is really the American version of pretend Mexican food.) So, what we get beyond the Arabic core is a multicultural experience. It is a classic piece of literature that is still available in all its pre-Disney glory, for those who long to travel back that far. A word of caution: This translation includes content not suitable for children.
December 6, 2017
Finally!
This is the book that decided me to get a Kindle. I would never have been able to afford a print copy, never mind carry it.
Warning! Major rant!
I did not exactly finish this book. I read the introduction, the opening essay, the “framing” story of Shahrazad, all 1001 nights, the final essay, some appendices, and three more volumes of appendices, thirteen volumes in all, with all the footnotes (averaging 500 – 600 per volume), and that is about all I can take of this book. There are another three volumes worth of stuff I didn’t read, but I am pretty sure none of it would do much to change my opinion.
It’s not that there is nothing good about Sir Richard Burton’s Arabian Nights. This is obviously a book intended as a vehicle for scholarly research and not something intended to be a fun read. As a vehicle of scholarly research, it is astounding, especially considering the effort of translating and putting together all the notes that went with it. Probably if you are really interested in Middle Eastern Literature, it is even more astounding. I have to say that whatever interest I ever might have had in Middle Eastern Literature is now officially pretty well satisfied.
I read this book, specifically the Burton translation, because it was on my list, inherited from a list my father shared with me many years ago of 100 books every businessman should read. (I bet very few businessmen have actually read the Arabian Nights in this translation; it took me over three years to get as far as I got.) I was sort of dreading it after finding out how long it was but also looking forward to reading a lot of stories I had never heard before. And also to finding out the real stories of Aladdin and Ali Baba, which are just about the only stories you ever hear from the Arabian Nights.
OK, wrong, wrong, wrong, all over. Apparently, Aladdin and Ali Baba are not in the Arabic original used by Sir Richard at all and thus are not in his translation. They show up in an earlier translation (as in something like 200 years earlier) by a Frenchman by the name of Antoine Galland who did not translate all 1001 nights, I presume because he didn’t find them, but only did 200 or 350 nights, or something like that. According to my French speaking friends who read this translation, it is a much more enjoyable read. I finally found Aladdin and Ali Baba among the appendices in volume 13, which is why I stopped reading after that one.
Major complaints:
1. There are nothing like 1001 different stories in here, even though there are 1001 nights. Even including the framing story of King Shahryar and Shahrazad, which is itself several stories and has stories within stories within it (there is a sort of storytelling contest between Shahrazad and her father, the Wazir, where she tries to persuade him why she should be allowed to marry the king and try to manage him, and he tries to persuade her that she will only be going to her death if she does), and counting for a couple of nights that have three or more stories in a single night, the fact that many of the other stories run for an average of 30 – 50 nights brings the average down considerably.
2. The narrative is frequently interrupted by unnecessary “couplets” – snippets of verse that, Sir Richard assures us are a standard feature of Arabic storytelling and would be expected of a wandering storyteller performing for a village. I can sympathize with Shahrazad using such a device to stretch the story out so she won’t get to the end before the king falls asleep. But if I were the King Shahryar, I would have had her put to death, if not the first time she had a character recite these couplets, then at least by the third time.
3. There are a lot of instances of garbled words as if the book were scanned to create the e-book, and some of the scanning didn’t go well. I have seen this in other books with a lot of Arabic references as well. Also, I think there are some instances of deliberate fake archaism on the part of the translator, as for example frequently, but not always, ‘shine’ for ‘thine.’ Also, he frequently uses ‘eyne’ for ‘eyes.' I presume this is done to give the work an ancient feel, but it would have made for easier reading if more modern variants had been used. Surely, even between about 1852 and 1885 when the translations were being done, nobody speaking English ever said ‘shine’ when they meant ‘thine.’ And there are other words that don’t appear as frequently, but that are also not as easy to figure out that are done the same way
4. This edition would have benefitted from interactive footnotes. Many of the footnotes were in Latin, Greek, or French, and a lot of others went on at some length about how bad Sir Richard thought other previous translators of the Nights were. But a few might have been useful if one were able to access them at the point where the reference was made and then immediately return to the point in the story where the reference was. Several other editions are now available for purchase. Hopefully at least one of them is more interactive. With such an enormous work, an ability to easily access the beginning of a particular book or tale and to look forward or back without losing one’s place would be a major plus.
5. The framing story of Shahryar and Shahrazad was never really finished. In derivative versions after the 1001 nights are ended, the King decides he loves her and agrees that he will not have her put to death after all (in some versions I have heard, they have one or two children by this time). But in this rendering, all you get is that this is the end of the 1001 Nights and goodbye.
Virtually every good-looking man or maiden is compared to the moon. Most of the lovers routinely fainted, either individually or together – the guys as well as the girls. Scarcely a merchant or ruler was able to leave his wealth to his son without said son running through the entire fortune partying with his friends. At least half of the stories concern how the profligate sons manage to get their act together after blowing everything. Only about twenty percent of the women, no matter how beautiful, are virtuous. The rest of the women are either foolish, wicked, unfaithful or cleverly devious. Almost all the older women are of the cleverly devious variety. But the impoverished young men wouldn’t get anywhere without them. And those who sincerely pray to Allah always come out on top in the end.
That said, there were a lot of stories in this book. If some were kind of boring, especially where you have to wait so long on those couplets, or on one of the characters to show off their knowledge of the Koran, or whatever, there were also a few that were pretty interesting.
This is the book that decided me to get a Kindle. I would never have been able to afford a print copy, never mind carry it.
Warning! Major rant!
I did not exactly finish this book. I read the introduction, the opening essay, the “framing” story of Shahrazad, all 1001 nights, the final essay, some appendices, and three more volumes of appendices, thirteen volumes in all, with all the footnotes (averaging 500 – 600 per volume), and that is about all I can take of this book. There are another three volumes worth of stuff I didn’t read, but I am pretty sure none of it would do much to change my opinion.
It’s not that there is nothing good about Sir Richard Burton’s Arabian Nights. This is obviously a book intended as a vehicle for scholarly research and not something intended to be a fun read. As a vehicle of scholarly research, it is astounding, especially considering the effort of translating and putting together all the notes that went with it. Probably if you are really interested in Middle Eastern Literature, it is even more astounding. I have to say that whatever interest I ever might have had in Middle Eastern Literature is now officially pretty well satisfied.
I read this book, specifically the Burton translation, because it was on my list, inherited from a list my father shared with me many years ago of 100 books every businessman should read. (I bet very few businessmen have actually read the Arabian Nights in this translation; it took me over three years to get as far as I got.) I was sort of dreading it after finding out how long it was but also looking forward to reading a lot of stories I had never heard before. And also to finding out the real stories of Aladdin and Ali Baba, which are just about the only stories you ever hear from the Arabian Nights.
OK, wrong, wrong, wrong, all over. Apparently, Aladdin and Ali Baba are not in the Arabic original used by Sir Richard at all and thus are not in his translation. They show up in an earlier translation (as in something like 200 years earlier) by a Frenchman by the name of Antoine Galland who did not translate all 1001 nights, I presume because he didn’t find them, but only did 200 or 350 nights, or something like that. According to my French speaking friends who read this translation, it is a much more enjoyable read. I finally found Aladdin and Ali Baba among the appendices in volume 13, which is why I stopped reading after that one.
Major complaints:
1. There are nothing like 1001 different stories in here, even though there are 1001 nights. Even including the framing story of King Shahryar and Shahrazad, which is itself several stories and has stories within stories within it (there is a sort of storytelling contest between Shahrazad and her father, the Wazir, where she tries to persuade him why she should be allowed to marry the king and try to manage him, and he tries to persuade her that she will only be going to her death if she does), and counting for a couple of nights that have three or more stories in a single night, the fact that many of the other stories run for an average of 30 – 50 nights brings the average down considerably.
2. The narrative is frequently interrupted by unnecessary “couplets” – snippets of verse that, Sir Richard assures us are a standard feature of Arabic storytelling and would be expected of a wandering storyteller performing for a village. I can sympathize with Shahrazad using such a device to stretch the story out so she won’t get to the end before the king falls asleep. But if I were the King Shahryar, I would have had her put to death, if not the first time she had a character recite these couplets, then at least by the third time.
3. There are a lot of instances of garbled words as if the book were scanned to create the e-book, and some of the scanning didn’t go well. I have seen this in other books with a lot of Arabic references as well. Also, I think there are some instances of deliberate fake archaism on the part of the translator, as for example frequently, but not always, ‘shine’ for ‘thine.’ Also, he frequently uses ‘eyne’ for ‘eyes.' I presume this is done to give the work an ancient feel, but it would have made for easier reading if more modern variants had been used. Surely, even between about 1852 and 1885 when the translations were being done, nobody speaking English ever said ‘shine’ when they meant ‘thine.’ And there are other words that don’t appear as frequently, but that are also not as easy to figure out that are done the same way
4. This edition would have benefitted from interactive footnotes. Many of the footnotes were in Latin, Greek, or French, and a lot of others went on at some length about how bad Sir Richard thought other previous translators of the Nights were. But a few might have been useful if one were able to access them at the point where the reference was made and then immediately return to the point in the story where the reference was. Several other editions are now available for purchase. Hopefully at least one of them is more interactive. With such an enormous work, an ability to easily access the beginning of a particular book or tale and to look forward or back without losing one’s place would be a major plus.
5. The framing story of Shahryar and Shahrazad was never really finished. In derivative versions after the 1001 nights are ended, the King decides he loves her and agrees that he will not have her put to death after all (in some versions I have heard, they have one or two children by this time). But in this rendering, all you get is that this is the end of the 1001 Nights and goodbye.
Virtually every good-looking man or maiden is compared to the moon. Most of the lovers routinely fainted, either individually or together – the guys as well as the girls. Scarcely a merchant or ruler was able to leave his wealth to his son without said son running through the entire fortune partying with his friends. At least half of the stories concern how the profligate sons manage to get their act together after blowing everything. Only about twenty percent of the women, no matter how beautiful, are virtuous. The rest of the women are either foolish, wicked, unfaithful or cleverly devious. Almost all the older women are of the cleverly devious variety. But the impoverished young men wouldn’t get anywhere without them. And those who sincerely pray to Allah always come out on top in the end.
That said, there were a lot of stories in this book. If some were kind of boring, especially where you have to wait so long on those couplets, or on one of the characters to show off their knowledge of the Koran, or whatever, there were also a few that were pretty interesting.
December 20, 2021
You will probably enjoy reading this book if you are really into fantasy. I'm not. I never could really get interested in the stories and by the time I had finished volume 2, I was tired of it. However, I did manage to get through the entire series over the course of a year. The premise of the supplemental volumes was somewhat different and I liked them a little better than the regular volumes, but not enough to give the entire series more than 2.5 stars. If you love fantasy, you will probably enjoy this book more than I did.
April 21, 2021
Orientalism at its finest.
Read
August 6, 2021This is a huge book. 16 volumes may be one thing or another but here each volume is at least as large as an average novel. Not even my Kindle Paper White can manage it completely; on opening the book there is a pause of at least a minute before I can begin turning pages. I don't know what Ms Kindle is doing but once we get going we're off. I am marking this book as "read" to get it off my "Currently Reading" shelf but I have not read all of it – or even half of it.
I have read most of the first volume and part of the second. Mr Burton is a conscientious translator who scatters footnotes throughout his texts. These may refer to alternate translations, more often to cultural differences between the Arab world and the west, and sometimes they are personal reflections or refer to his own experiences or other writings. The text in the footnotes for each volume is somewhat less than the actual text, I believe.
Mr Burton was not Victorian in the sense of being a prude, nor were the authors of these tales. For example in the opening story – the one which sours King Shahryar on all women and forces Scheherazade to a lifetime of storytelling. Andrew Lang's explains, in his Tales from the Arabian Nights: "...It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death..." (Introduction)
In the present text:
"The lady laughed heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's bosom: then they went into the basin and, after performing the Ghusl, or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had done before. When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines he became as one distraught and he cried out, "Only in utter solitude can man be safe from the doings of this vile world!" (Location 493)
I think it is worth noting that the king only cries out in distress after observing the goings on for "a couple of hours". In any case he was thoroughly enraged: "...On this wise he continued for the space of three years; marrying a maiden every night and killing her the next morning..." (Location 561)
In Footnote number 7 Burton explains: "[FN#7] Debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts. I measured one man in Somaliland who, when quiescent, numbered nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the negro race and of African animals; e.g. the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially white-washed." (Location 567 in Footnotes)
While this is interesting, and funny – imagine the process of measuring a man's penis – it is also as politically incorrect as you can be. But it does explain why, in several stories, the "negro" slaves, often described as "ugly", are the preferred lovers of women.
I suspect that Mr Burton is not really racist. He seems to show respect for the people of each culture he encounters. He does not belittle any race, but he does make distinctions between them, mostly cultural.
"...Now I swear an oath by the velour and honour of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be ; the poor manliness of white men)..." (Location 1447)
"velour" I suspect is a typo for "valour". There are many typos in this edition.
Nor does class-consciousness loom large in Mr Burton's world view: "
...This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class; they conscientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds a clew; after which they tell him everything and something more... (Location 5899)
The perspective of the Arabian Nights is male. Even though our narrator is female, she can still say: "...she hung her head in shame to the ground and repeated the words of Him whose Name be exalted, "Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein Allah hath caused the one of them to excel the other.[FN#387]" (Location 19111)
Mr Burton explains: "[FN#387] Koran iv. 38. The advantages are bodily strength, understanding and the high privilege of Holy War. Thus far, and thus far only, woman amongst Moslems is "lesser". (Location 20386)
Still we read in Tale of the Bull and the Ass: "...she kissed his hand and feet and he led her out of the room submissive as a wife should be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and mourning were changed into joy and gladness." (Location 693)
"...Women are Satans made for woe o' men; * I fly to Allah from their devilish scathe: Source of whatever bale befel our kind, * In wordly matters and in things of Faith..." (Location 18888)
There is a lot of religious promotion, calling on Allah the wise and good and all powerful even in times of grief and loss; as when the sage Duban speaks to king Yunan: "Turn thee from grief nor care a jot! * Commit thy needs to Fate and Lot! Enjoy the Present passing well * And let the Past be clean forgot For whatso haply seemeth worse * Shall work thy weal as Allah wot Allah shall do whate'er He wills * And in His will oppose Him not. (Location 1208)
Mr Burton's language is generally readable, somewhat dated, difficult mostly in his use of very unusual words, some of which he seems to have invented:
"turpiloquium" Latin for "profanity" and, in the context used, apparently it can mean "ribaldry" as well. (Location 188)
"Badawi" is apparently the singular, for the more accepted term "Bedouin". (Location 270)
"amativeness" for "amorous". (Location 20085)
"Polissonerie" he tosses in for some reason; French for "mischief".
"futtering" is probably a word Mr Burton made up from the French "foutre" and with the same meaning, i.e. "fuck". (Location 528)
"...the citizens, who were of four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew and Magian, she transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white, the Magians red, the Christians blue and the Jews yellow. (Location 1506)
Magians are Zoroastrians – as explained elsewhere. The reader may wonder why these colours are chosen for these religions but Mr Burton explains:
[FN#131] Turbans in these colors were worn by practitioners of the various religions.
Having recently read The Hero with a Thousand Faces I jumped forward to volume two in this book to finish the story Mr Campbell began: Prince Kamar al-Zaman and Princess Budur which Mr Burton calls the Tale of Kamar Al Zaman.
"...Except thou obey me this very moment, O accursed, I will dart my sparks at thee with my fire and consume thee; yea, in pieces I will rend thee and into the deserts cast thee... (Location 17528) Harsh words from one Djinn to another.
While Mr Burton's prose is acceptable, in my humble opinion I cannot say the same for his poetry; of which there are at times considerable, particularly in this tale:
"Those glances, fell as plundering Turk, to heart such havoc deal As never havocked scymitar made keenest at the curve. On me thou layest load of love the heaviest while I feel So feeble grown that under weight of chemisette I swerve. (Location 17555)
"...Upon the lover's eyne high mysteries 'light: I'm blamed for love of her, nor pardon claim; * Eyes are not profiting which lack foresight: Heaven strip thee, blamer mine! unjust art thou; * Before this fawn must every eye low bow..." (Location 17865)
"...Thou present, in the Heaven of heavens I dwell; * Bearing thine absence is of hells my Hell..." (Location 18114) Says a father to his son.
"The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it, * Had it been made for cunnus' sake it had been formed like hatchet!" (Location 18666)
This is Princess Budur, masquerading as a man and a king, to her husband Kamar Al Zaman who has been missing for a couple of years, enticing him to gay sex.
Mr Burton regrets several of these couplets in what he regards otherwise as "a pretty tale".
It is a long tale, a very long tale. It could have ended: "...[Kamar Al Zaman] became King, he remitted the customs-dues and released all men who remained in gaol. Thus he abode a long while, ordering himself worthily towards his lieges; and he lived with his two wives in peace, happiness, constancy and content, lying the night with each of them in turn." (Location 18738)
And they lived happily ever after...
Unfortunately it does not end so but the tale of Kamar Al Zaman goes on to relate the adventures of his sons who suffer many slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I don't remember if I gave up at last or indeed did finish the tale. In any case I have lost my taste for Arabian Nights and will put this book in the "read" pile. Maybe I will take it up again some day.
Gems of wisdom do shine through: "Oppression hideth in every heart: power revealeth it and weakness concealeth it." (Location 1092)
I have read most of the first volume and part of the second. Mr Burton is a conscientious translator who scatters footnotes throughout his texts. These may refer to alternate translations, more often to cultural differences between the Arab world and the west, and sometimes they are personal reflections or refer to his own experiences or other writings. The text in the footnotes for each volume is somewhat less than the actual text, I believe.
Mr Burton was not Victorian in the sense of being a prude, nor were the authors of these tales. For example in the opening story – the one which sours King Shahryar on all women and forces Scheherazade to a lifetime of storytelling. Andrew Lang's explains, in his Tales from the Arabian Nights: "...It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death..." (Introduction)
In the present text:
"The lady laughed heartily, and all fell to satisfying their lusts, and remained so occupied for a couple of hours, when the white slaves rose up from the handmaidens' breasts and the blackamoor dismounted from the Queen's bosom: then they went into the basin and, after performing the Ghusl, or complete ablution, donned their dresses and retired as they had done before. When King Shahryar saw this infamy of his wife and concubines he became as one distraught and he cried out, "Only in utter solitude can man be safe from the doings of this vile world!" (Location 493)
I think it is worth noting that the king only cries out in distress after observing the goings on for "a couple of hours". In any case he was thoroughly enraged: "...On this wise he continued for the space of three years; marrying a maiden every night and killing her the next morning..." (Location 561)
In Footnote number 7 Burton explains: "[FN#7] Debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts. I measured one man in Somaliland who, when quiescent, numbered nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the negro race and of African animals; e.g. the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially white-washed." (Location 567 in Footnotes)
While this is interesting, and funny – imagine the process of measuring a man's penis – it is also as politically incorrect as you can be. But it does explain why, in several stories, the "negro" slaves, often described as "ugly", are the preferred lovers of women.
I suspect that Mr Burton is not really racist. He seems to show respect for the people of each culture he encounters. He does not belittle any race, but he does make distinctions between them, mostly cultural.
"...Now I swear an oath by the velour and honour of blackamoor men (and deem not our manliness to be ; the poor manliness of white men)..." (Location 1447)
"velour" I suspect is a typo for "valour". There are many typos in this edition.
Nor does class-consciousness loom large in Mr Burton's world view: "
...This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class; they conscientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds a clew; after which they tell him everything and something more... (Location 5899)
The perspective of the Arabian Nights is male. Even though our narrator is female, she can still say: "...she hung her head in shame to the ground and repeated the words of Him whose Name be exalted, "Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein Allah hath caused the one of them to excel the other.[FN#387]" (Location 19111)
Mr Burton explains: "[FN#387] Koran iv. 38. The advantages are bodily strength, understanding and the high privilege of Holy War. Thus far, and thus far only, woman amongst Moslems is "lesser". (Location 20386)
Still we read in Tale of the Bull and the Ass: "...she kissed his hand and feet and he led her out of the room submissive as a wife should be. Her parents and all the company rejoiced and sadness and mourning were changed into joy and gladness." (Location 693)
"...Women are Satans made for woe o' men; * I fly to Allah from their devilish scathe: Source of whatever bale befel our kind, * In wordly matters and in things of Faith..." (Location 18888)
There is a lot of religious promotion, calling on Allah the wise and good and all powerful even in times of grief and loss; as when the sage Duban speaks to king Yunan: "Turn thee from grief nor care a jot! * Commit thy needs to Fate and Lot! Enjoy the Present passing well * And let the Past be clean forgot For whatso haply seemeth worse * Shall work thy weal as Allah wot Allah shall do whate'er He wills * And in His will oppose Him not. (Location 1208)
Mr Burton's language is generally readable, somewhat dated, difficult mostly in his use of very unusual words, some of which he seems to have invented:
"turpiloquium" Latin for "profanity" and, in the context used, apparently it can mean "ribaldry" as well. (Location 188)
"Badawi" is apparently the singular, for the more accepted term "Bedouin". (Location 270)
"amativeness" for "amorous". (Location 20085)
"Polissonerie" he tosses in for some reason; French for "mischief".
"futtering" is probably a word Mr Burton made up from the French "foutre" and with the same meaning, i.e. "fuck". (Location 528)
"...the citizens, who were of four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew and Magian, she transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white, the Magians red, the Christians blue and the Jews yellow. (Location 1506)
Magians are Zoroastrians – as explained elsewhere. The reader may wonder why these colours are chosen for these religions but Mr Burton explains:
[FN#131] Turbans in these colors were worn by practitioners of the various religions.
Having recently read The Hero with a Thousand Faces I jumped forward to volume two in this book to finish the story Mr Campbell began: Prince Kamar al-Zaman and Princess Budur which Mr Burton calls the Tale of Kamar Al Zaman.
"...Except thou obey me this very moment, O accursed, I will dart my sparks at thee with my fire and consume thee; yea, in pieces I will rend thee and into the deserts cast thee... (Location 17528) Harsh words from one Djinn to another.
While Mr Burton's prose is acceptable, in my humble opinion I cannot say the same for his poetry; of which there are at times considerable, particularly in this tale:
"Those glances, fell as plundering Turk, to heart such havoc deal As never havocked scymitar made keenest at the curve. On me thou layest load of love the heaviest while I feel So feeble grown that under weight of chemisette I swerve. (Location 17555)
"...Upon the lover's eyne high mysteries 'light: I'm blamed for love of her, nor pardon claim; * Eyes are not profiting which lack foresight: Heaven strip thee, blamer mine! unjust art thou; * Before this fawn must every eye low bow..." (Location 17865)
"...Thou present, in the Heaven of heavens I dwell; * Bearing thine absence is of hells my Hell..." (Location 18114) Says a father to his son.
"The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it, * Had it been made for cunnus' sake it had been formed like hatchet!" (Location 18666)
This is Princess Budur, masquerading as a man and a king, to her husband Kamar Al Zaman who has been missing for a couple of years, enticing him to gay sex.
Mr Burton regrets several of these couplets in what he regards otherwise as "a pretty tale".
It is a long tale, a very long tale. It could have ended: "...[Kamar Al Zaman] became King, he remitted the customs-dues and released all men who remained in gaol. Thus he abode a long while, ordering himself worthily towards his lieges; and he lived with his two wives in peace, happiness, constancy and content, lying the night with each of them in turn." (Location 18738)
And they lived happily ever after...
Unfortunately it does not end so but the tale of Kamar Al Zaman goes on to relate the adventures of his sons who suffer many slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I don't remember if I gave up at last or indeed did finish the tale. In any case I have lost my taste for Arabian Nights and will put this book in the "read" pile. Maybe I will take it up again some day.
Gems of wisdom do shine through: "Oppression hideth in every heart: power revealeth it and weakness concealeth it." (Location 1092)
June 21, 2011
Good yarns! The storytelling kept me up nights, just as Scheherazade meant it to. Definitely worth reading in full, not just for Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad; the lesser known stories were some of the best. But I wish the stories had been more substantive. The tales are continually showing the reader more and more wondrous spectacles -- lands where the very gravel is made of precious gems and the like -- but any moral or psychological dimension they may have is superficial. Tyranny is exposed except when it isn't; humility is celebrated except when it isn't. I expected better from Scheherazade, who is strangely invisible amidst a set of narratives that should be so much shaped by her plight. Still, a good read full of imagination.
May 27, 2020
I found out that Sheherazade had a younger sister Dunyazad.
June 19, 2015
I real enjoyed the storys in it.
Read
June 23, 2020I've read reviews that say this work is a representation of Muslim culture. But as I was reading something didn't seem quite right. So I did some Googling. I figured I'd give as honest of a review as possible. "The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques, and various forms of erotica. Numerous stories depict jinns, ghouls, apes, sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places," -Wikipedia The stories have some racism and women are mistreated throughout. That said, it is not a book that's cherished in Arab culture. "According to Robert Irwin, "Even today, with the exception of certain writers and academics, the Nights is regarded with disdain in the Arabic world. Its stories are regularly denounced as vulgar, improbable, childish and, above all, badly written.""-Wikipedia
September 1, 2020
Enchanting
No one needs to explain what "The Arabian Nights" is about. I read another edition of this book and whenever I read, I feel so absorbed, so enchanted that I can't keep the book aside after reading one story. Every story is woven so artfully with one another that leaves you to finish the whole book instantly. One story ends and in the end, gives a clue of starting another. This book is for anyone who loves to read about magic, adventure, fantasy. I'm deeply touched with the morale of every story which shows us right and wrong in life, like Panchatantra or Aesop's Fables. We grow up reading these stories which create a mark in you. Valuable lessons in these stories make it more acceptable.
No one needs to explain what "The Arabian Nights" is about. I read another edition of this book and whenever I read, I feel so absorbed, so enchanted that I can't keep the book aside after reading one story. Every story is woven so artfully with one another that leaves you to finish the whole book instantly. One story ends and in the end, gives a clue of starting another. This book is for anyone who loves to read about magic, adventure, fantasy. I'm deeply touched with the morale of every story which shows us right and wrong in life, like Panchatantra or Aesop's Fables. We grow up reading these stories which create a mark in you. Valuable lessons in these stories make it more acceptable.
November 29, 2020
Eh. Really not sure what to say about this classic. I enjoyed the old-fashioned prose, but the short story format isn’t my favourite. Maybe that’s why it was hard for me to feel anything for the characters, but also a lot of these supposed heroes seem perfectly okay with casual thievery and murder, for no other reason than furthering their own schemes. I’m not sure I understand why this book has been valued so highly through the ages.
Other themes of racism, sexism, and slavery go unchallenged in the stories.
Other themes of racism, sexism, and slavery go unchallenged in the stories.
August 19, 2025
I liked the fairy tales, filled with Genies and Magic. I was a bit confused though. I thought all the short stories were supposed to be connected to Scheherazade telling the stories to Sultan Schahriar. I expected little snippets after every couple stories of the two becoming friends so that at the end of the book the Sultan believes in love again and we get our happily ever after. Instead, the book suddenly ends, making me wonder if the Sultan finally has this bride executed and then continued killing a bride a night until his death.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2021
Burton’s translation is classic but the language is still formal/stilted and needs getting used to. After that, all our favorite stories unfold. Best is knowing *why* the king killed off each woman in the morning (news to me).
December 10, 2025
some of my fav stories were the tale of the 3 apples, the tale of kamar Al zaman, the angel of death with the proud King and the devout man, julnar the seaborne and her son King badr basim of Persia, aladdin and the wonderful lamp, ali baba and the 40 thieves
June 13, 2020
I remembered "Ali Baba and the 40 thieves" and "Aladdin and the lamp" and thought this might be a good book for the family to listen together. Nope. This one is just for adults.
January 1, 2024
Reading this is a delightful experience.
November 15, 2025
best book
May 4, 2020
820 pages of pure pleasure!
December 14, 2024
*The Arabian Nights: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night* is a collection of captivating stories filled with magic, adventure, and mystery. It features tales of cleverness, bravery, and love, such as the famous story of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the Sailor. Each night, Scheherazade tells a new story to delay her execution, keeping the reader hooked with suspense and wonder. The book offers a fascinating glimpse into Middle Eastern folklore and culture. Its timeless stories, full of fantasy and wisdom, continue to entertain and inspire readers of all ages.
October 2, 2011
Disclaimer: I did not read the 6 volumes of supplemental essays and stories. I only read the main text.
Things I learned from the Thousand Nights and a Night:
1. Most women are evil and conniving, and those who aren't will meet some kind of terrible death early on.
2. Most men are easily deceived and/or complete liars, but even so end up better off in the end.
3. Humanity will always take the easiest path to riches and fame, regardless of how much it may cost in the future (this I tend to agree with).
4. There appear to only be 5 or 6 actual stories in the 1001 nights - the majority of the others are repetitions of the core stories with one or two minor details altered. This makes for very slow reading or the nearly irresistible urge to skim until you see something new/different.
Overall, I can say the Nights was interesting to some degree. It doesn't seem that a whole lot has changed in the Arab world based on my readings of autobiographies written by women of the region in modern times. There were one or two very strong female characters - particularly Shahrezade (obviously) and Princess Abrizah - my personal favorite character although I didn't feel her tragic death did her justice.
I enjoy learning about folklore from other cultures, and from that regard the Nights was definitely worth the read. It is a bit long and repetitious, but at least the first time through the tales were intriguing and a few times I was able to connect them with their counterparts in other cultures. I would not, however, recommend Nights as leisure reading - it's definitely more for those with a goal to read it for an assignment or personal challenge.
36th book read since July 2011.
Things I learned from the Thousand Nights and a Night:
1. Most women are evil and conniving, and those who aren't will meet some kind of terrible death early on.
2. Most men are easily deceived and/or complete liars, but even so end up better off in the end.
3. Humanity will always take the easiest path to riches and fame, regardless of how much it may cost in the future (this I tend to agree with).
4. There appear to only be 5 or 6 actual stories in the 1001 nights - the majority of the others are repetitions of the core stories with one or two minor details altered. This makes for very slow reading or the nearly irresistible urge to skim until you see something new/different.
Overall, I can say the Nights was interesting to some degree. It doesn't seem that a whole lot has changed in the Arab world based on my readings of autobiographies written by women of the region in modern times. There were one or two very strong female characters - particularly Shahrezade (obviously) and Princess Abrizah - my personal favorite character although I didn't feel her tragic death did her justice.
I enjoy learning about folklore from other cultures, and from that regard the Nights was definitely worth the read. It is a bit long and repetitious, but at least the first time through the tales were intriguing and a few times I was able to connect them with their counterparts in other cultures. I would not, however, recommend Nights as leisure reading - it's definitely more for those with a goal to read it for an assignment or personal challenge.
36th book read since July 2011.
October 15, 2012
Fantastic, convoluted and all of that, but actually in this the original, it is quite hard work. Perhaps I will return at a later date, but right now, I just haven't got the headspace to plough through this multitude of pages and the awkward language and footnotes. Perhaps a month in solitude would do it.
January 26, 2016
What a great bunch of stories. Burton's translation is old fashioned, but I love it too.
May 5, 2015
I read Most of the stories.
May 20, 2017
I read the entire series, and it was fascinating from the beginning to the end. Definitely not the Disney version.
August 9, 2018
Maybe best version to read. Uncut version
Currently reading
March 14, 2019Good one
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