One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Oxford Story Collections)

I was looking for a version of the story that I could read out loud with my 7yo daughter to give her an introduction to the monumental work. Although more "authentic" translations such as Burton's may be nice for the highly literate adult, there is no way that I could tolerate reading it out loud to someone. It would have been nice to have more of the stories included, but many of the major ones are in place and creat the jumping off place for literary discussion of the origin of some of our more modern tales to which a child would have been exposed. If you are looking for a lighter version of the stories or want a quicker read to get an overview of the historial relevance, this version is for you. If you are wanting to read out loud, this is a nice version. If you are looking for the full force, heavy duty experience, then this is not for you. Go find Burton's multi-volume set.

I've been enjoying reading mythology and folktales from a variety of cultures recently. This collection of stories was fantastic and generally hewed more closely to traditional fairy tales than some of my other recent reads. Stories are short and easy to read prior to going to bed or during other brief intervals.

This is one of the best versions of these stories in my opinion, and is particularly suitable for older children who are ready to move beyond simple children's stories. The stories are only a bit "straightened up" for contemporay audiences, but they retain the language and the fanatastic elements that people turn to these Tales to enjoy. The stories also retain some of the violent and cruel plots twists of the original, another reason you may not want to use these as bedtime stories for little children. All the major Arabian Nights stories and most of the minor ones are included; and the "frame story" of the Shah and his clever wife is carried throughout the book very nicely. Each story told by Shahrezade serves a secondary purpose of advancing the tale of the royal couple's evolving relationship, and so the ending is more truly satisfying than in any other version of the Arabian Nights. The illustrations in 1996 edition by Stephan Lavis are good as well, and add to the storyland feeling of the tales. (The only quibble I have hear is with the white European look of most of the characters in the drawings.) I don't know about the pictures in the latest edition.

Words cannot describe the fantastic quality of this collection of Arabic literature. But don't get the book just to read the tale of Ala al-Din (Aladdin) and his Wonderful Lamp, because the other tales included surpass this merely moderate one by far - although it's interesting to find out that a black midget is Aladdin's primary nemesis (upon who Disney's Jafar is based, apparently). The stories touch on such a wide variety of unusual topics: a man's visit to the kingdom of mermaids, a dead beggar getting tripped over again and again, a guy claiming to have several volcanoes in a portable bag, a Sultan's escape from a buffalo-faced woman in the presence of a group of pink ladies, and the marriage of a prince to a turtle. Insane stuff. My favorite story is The Everlasting Shoes by far. It's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read. It's about an old miser who's so cheap he never buys new shoes. He just patches up the pair he has whenever they get holes. The addition of so many patches naturally make his shoes bigger and bigger. Eventually the shoes become ridiculously huge and heavy and smelly, and they make a lot of noise as the miser walks. The scene of the shoes being thrown into the river and getting caught in the millwork is well worth the price of the entire book. There's a story in here that looks VERY much like a mid-east version of Cinderella. Quite interesting. I am unable to tell how many liberties the author has taken in translating the tales, but they're definitely fun to read. There are tons of ancient day metaphors and funny insults like, "You flea on a cockroach's kneecap!" and "Son of a plank! Did you steal your brains from a table?" I really liked reading the misfortunes of the protagonist in the Keys of Destiny stories, and the nagging wives that appear sporadically are pretty darn funny. The things I didn't like about this book were very few. Only its frequent mentioning of Allah and the puzzling weakness of its 998th and 999th stories about a flying toy horse. I would recommend the Arabian Knights to anybody over the age of fifteen; probably because I was so surprised at the large amount of enjoyable humor.

I have a single volume 800-page translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton. It's difficult reading at times because of the sheer weight! Anyway, I ordered Geraldine McCaughrean version with some misgivings. It took me a moment to realize that this is not a translation, but a retelling of the stories. After that realization I enjoyed the book. it's well written and is not as dark and violent as the Burton translation.