ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS or THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS



Author:


Anonymous. The Arabian Nights is a collection of timeless Persian, Arabian and Indian folk tales handed down through several centuries.

First edition:


"Alf Laylah Wa Laylah" (a thousand nights and a night) is the original Arab title. There is no definitive text but several variant manuscripts. In English, the two most extended version are Richard Burton's (1855-1858) and Andrew Lang's. In Frech, Gallant translated The Arabain Nights and made the book known in Europe.

Illustrators:


Goodenow Kliros Letchford Kelek Dulac



In short:


King Shahryar believes that all women are inherently unfaithful and not being able to cope with it, decides to murder all his wives after their wedding night. This goes on for three years. But one day, the king meets Scheherazade. The girl decides to tell a tale to the king during their wedding night, and when the sun rises, she stops narrating, leaving the story unfinished. Shahryar gets fascinated by the tale and does not kill the girl, waiting for another night of story-telling. And this goes on for 1001 nights!!



Selection of edition:


Arabian Nights, illustrated by Edmunt Dulac, Omega, 1985.
Les mile et une nuits, translated by Gallant.
Arabian Nights Entertainment, translated by Lane, Tudor, 1927.
Aladin and other tales from the Arabian Nights, illustrated by William Harvey, Puffin Classic, 1997.
Jan and Stan Berenstain, Aladin and other tales from the Arabian Nights, 1999.
Robert Louis Stevenson, The New Arabian Nights, Chato, 1890.



More about Arabian Nights:


The book compilation presents many different tales, among which the famous Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (read our comments on Disney's film version) and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (not included in Lang's version). Primarily written for adults, the range of topics from Genies to Sinbad cause children to love them as well.



The Arabian Nights on the Internet:


There are many web sites dealing with various aspects of the Arabian Nights, the most wonderful story collection ever, and several of them contain versions of the text. Ricochet recomends you:
http://www.arabiannights.org is an exhautive English site with Burton's and Lang's versions.
http://www.iraq.net is an Arab page with 29 illustrations of Arabian Nights.