Product Description

No other edition offers extensive textual apparatus such as explanatory notes, plot summaries, particularly vital as stories are complex and interwoven. The Sultan Schahriar's misguided resolution to shelter himself from the possible infidelities on his wives leads to an outbreak of barbarity in his kingdoms and a reign of terror in his court, stopped only by the resourceful Scheherazade. The tales with which Scheherazade nightly postpones the muderous intent of the sultan have entered our language and our lives like no other collection of narratives before or since. Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba: all make their spectacular entrance on to the stage of English literary history in the Arabian Nights Entertainments (1704-17). The stories contained in this `store house of ingenious fiction' initiate a pattern of literary reference and influence which today remains as powerful and intense as it was throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This edition reproduces in its entirety the earliest English translation of the French orientalist Antoine Galland's Mille et une Nuits. This remained for over a century the only English translation of the story cycle, influencing an incalculable number of writers, and no other edition offers the complete text supplemented by full textual apparatus.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #241552 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 976 pages

About the Author
Robert Mack is Assistant Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. He is also the editor of Oriental Tales in World's Classics.

Customer Reviews

An unfamiliar look at the familiar
In addition to the numerous selected collections of these stories for children, the best known version to the English speaker is probable the translation of another translation - by Mardrus. (The Burton translation is much spoken of, but seldom read). It's refreshing, therefore, to read this earlier version, which, despite the language, is possibly the most readable for adults, as it very much concentrates on telling the stories rather than linguistic accuracy or academic nuance. It was the stories in this form which caught the imagination of numerous authors as well as the public, and became the source for endless re-tellings, for the themes are timeless, and the tales can be retold in a style and manner for any age whilst retaining their interest and, just as important, their fun. Highly recommended for those who are prepared to work a little harder than usual for their enjoyment.