The Book of Thousand Nights and One Night (4 volume set)

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Summary: The Acme of Storytelling
Review: Almost nothing can be said about the Thousand Nights and One Night, except what is obvious to anyone who understands its substance. It is one of the truly essential pieces of world culture, and probably the most extensive universe of stories in history.

Something must be said, however, for those who are NOT aware of the extent of this work. This is not the simple batch of a dozen or so stories -- Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, and the like -- that most people think it is. This is over 2400 pages of narrative, comprising close on 100 stories -- some of which are themselves as long as novels, and many of which contain smaller stories within themselves. The stories range from the profoundly epic to the delightfully whimsical, and there is variation in mood and length throughout the series that it not only serves as a collection of discrete stories but functions as a unified whole.

As such, the attempt to read the Thousand Nights and One Night in its entirety can not be a halfhearted one. The reader must be prepared to invest considerable time in the reading. The rewards, however, are incalculable. The complete experience has few parallels in fiction, because few works of such volume possess such unity. Reading moves from the hasty and immediate to the comfortable and regular. The difference is akin to that between listening to a 3-minute pop song and listening to a 30-minute symphony. The individual stories fade into memory, retaining their own identities but also falling into place within the whole.

I will not attempt to address the individual stories themselves in any detail. Suffice it to say that they narrate love, lust, sex, war, peace, contemplation, action, commerce, politics, art, science, and many other things, in the spheres of the supernatural and the mundane. The Thousand Nights and One Night is a virtually complete panorama of human existence, with each story a component scene.

I will, though, address the issue of translation. I have perused other editions of the tales in varying degrees (although this is the only one I have read completely). In the first place, any translation which omits some stories is not worth consideration. Although there is some controversy over whether Richard Burton (the first to translate the tales into English) corrupted the original text and inserted spurious parts, there is nothing to be gained by being persnickety in this regard. This edition contains more tales than most others I have seen, and therefore is more likely to contain the "right" tales somewhere inside. On a less abstract level, this text is simply more fun to read than most others, and, as mentioned, there is more of that fun text to be read.

Also, it can be plausibly speculated that this translation is particularly likely to have fewer Burton-induced inaccuracies, since it is not in fact a direct translation from Arabic to English. This 4-volume edition is a translation into English, by Powys Mathers, of a French translation, by J. C. Mardrus, of the original Arabic. It is somewhat surprising that an indirect translation such as this should be of such high quality, but I have found it to be so. In particular, this Mardrus & Mathers version includes substantial verse passages (which in other translations are often rendered as prose) and is refreshingly frank in its translation of the more ribald passages (which are numerous).

The Thousand Nights and One Night is not merely a book that can be read; it is a world which can be experienced, and the memories of that experience can mingle almost indistinguishably with memories of reality. Only a work of this size can work on large and small levels, with many intricate details but also many large thematic components. As an added benefit, by the time you have finished reading the fourth volume, your memories of the first will be fading, so you can begin a new reading immediately, and experience the joys of the Thousand Nights and One Night all over again.

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Summary: ? THE GENIUS OF ?SHAHRAZAD?
Review: My first encounter with the literary classic "The Thousand and One Nights" was in the form of a 6-hr. Penguin audiobook. As I began listening to the first tale that Shahrazad tells her husband the King, to insure that he will spare her life that night, and for every night to come, by breaking the terrible embittered vow he had made many years before - after he discovered his first wife engaged in an infidelity and killed her for it - that for the remainder of his life he would simply marry one woman after another, each of whom he would make love to for just one night and then kill the next day.

I was astounded to discover what a fantastically unique work of genius and art it is.

For the first story the ingenious Shahrazad tells her husband contains within itself other stories, some of which in turn tend to contain other stories, and all these stories emerge from one another organically, like the branches of a tree or of an endless sympodeal vine. Moreover, the branching stories bear a mutual resemblance, there is convergence within divergence, as well as a kind of hierarchy whose many levels seem to mirror one another; indeed, the whole structure of this first story or night of storytelling has a fractal quality. Furthermore, this first story contains a story whose theme images Shahrazad's own situation with the King in having to forestall death, so the mirroring and fractality extends beyond the tale to the basic situation of the book, or, in this sense, to the structure of the `real world itself'.

The stories also reflect the fact that their telling is functional, work that MUST be done - minute by minute and hour by hour and day by day - if their authoress is to cheat death or engineer her own survival, and precisely the kind of machinery that will so fascinate the King that he will keep his intention in abeyance; and yet because Tragic Fate and Absolute Need oversee the invention, the stories themselves are at times like brilliant but oddly constructed machines in their symmetries. Many, for example, are strangely circular in their design, not just in the sense that on the final page of Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" there is a sentence which only ends on the first page of that novel, but in a more radical way that calls to mind the mythical snake Ouroboros who, paradoxically, perpetually swallows his own tail but without ever consuming himself.

The oneiric quality of the storytelling is also like life itself, which tells a new and catoptromantic story everyday for 27,000 days, with each day's story a bush that grows from a seed of yesterday's bushy tale. (And are not all of us simply telling one another tales to forestall our mutual decapitation - or deracination?)

Beyond this, "The Thousand and One Nights" is a veritable portrait of what may be the quintessential quality of genius or of that trait which is the supreme illustration of genius or that distinguishes the highest genius from all others: a universal becoming; a bursting forth everywhere - as if from an irresistible pressure or an incessant chain reaction or contagion or a fountain of Spirit and Will - of thought, invention, pure curiosity, discovery, insight, play, experimentation, transformation; an unpredictable omnipresent budding from everything and nothing or in the midst of what is most ordinary and known; a kaleidoscopic process of embracive self-exploration and recombination; an inexhaustible wealth of feeling and imagination.

>- Patrick Gunkel

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting Classic of World Literature
Review: Poetic, enchanting, and sometimes hilarious, the tales told by Shahrazad during 1001 nights of her captivity, are a classic, an enduring testament to the great culture of Arab Islam. The tales were really compiled over several generations and were thought to be a perfect item of appeal to the prurient interests of the lower classes. But as history demonstrated, the tales can entertain and enchant virtually anyone, regardless of class, ethnic origin, religion, or regional ties. These are culturally distinct tales with a universal appeal.

The language and subject matter is sometimes very adult. Hence Disney's and Disney-like versions that expunge the offending content. But this version is complete. All the entertainment is here. And the language is so natural, so easy to read, you may forget just how far back in history these tales have originated. These tales possess art and vigor, and the kind of confidence that is born out of faith. (And those who have interest in psychology may notice that although Shahrazad is waiting to be executed, she has no "death row" syndrome whatsoever. On the contrary, she epitomizes common sense and calm demeanor.) Reading this is hours of entertainment and relaxation, with some new knowledge also thrown in. But the only way to truly know these tales is to read them. So open the book now.

Rating:
Summary: Thousand Nights and One Night
Review: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night is a very nice story which anyone can read it at any age i learnt alot i know the stories are not a true story but still we can find something from the story that is usefull for us. But the only thing i get confused is that we call the book arabian nights but the book is a fragment of a lost book of persian stories why the name is arabian night then ? At the start i thought that is a arabic story but after reading a book called the legendary past (myths) which is published in london i find out it is a persian story.

Rating:
Summary: A book to savor
Review: The stories contained within are truly wonderful. They oftentimes read with such beauty and vividness that I almost believed I was there! If there's such a thing as a darn-near perfect translation, these books are it imho. Why not introduce your children to the tales of the Arabian nights via these books? I'm no historian, but these tales have a much more authentic feel than others that I encountered as a child. Read a few stories each night, and enjoy the whole series over a period of time! Or dive in and don't surface until you're done!

Rating:
Summary: A book to savor
Review: The stories contained within are truly wonderful. They oftentimes read with such beauty and vividness that I almost believed I was there! If there's such a thing as a darn-near perfect translation, these books are it imho. Why not introduce your children to the tales of the Arabian nights via these books? I'm no historian, but these tales have a much more authentic feel than others that I encountered as a child. Read a few stories each night, and enjoy the whole series over a period of time! Or dive in and don't surface until you're done!

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Summary: Adult fantasies for young children?
Review: The tales just go on and on, and would probably add up to more than 1001. You need a lot of courage, detrmination and time to go through the entire collection.

The setting is medieval Islamic world. The tales offer an interesting window into the psyche of the tellers and the listerners.

Two features stand out in these stories. One is the continuing theme of 'betrayal' by women and unbridled lust by men. ... The ... prowess of 'negroes' (who go around servicing their masters' wives) appears to be a major concern for the story-tellers. The language is quite explicit (and certainly not suitable for ages 4-8 as www.Amazon.com has marked it mistakenly).

The second feature is how the story-tellers appear to be obsessed with wealth and riches. There is very little mention of how these riches are to be produced -- mostly they appear as if by magic or are endowed by kings. No one has to work for them. There are few, if any, moral principles, except for a continuing emphasis on faith in Allah and his prophet. It is interesting to speculate what effect these stories would have had on the region's culture over a thousand years of telling. If popular stories affect a culture's world-view. then you have here a very dangerous set of tales.

There are some poignant moments. At times, some of the characters display rare courage and honesty. You also learn how curiosity can kill the cat in a thousand and one ways. The Khalifa and the kings try to be just most of the time. Some of the wazirs are heroic, though others are very crooked. The description of beauty (male or female) is generally quite exquisite. The narrative also spends a lot of time and effort on describing places, chambers and palaces in detail -- so you can almost see them with your eyes. This is perhaps the key to the magic of these tales.

Certainly an invaluable piece of world's cultural heritage -- though you may differ on their contribution to building a better world.

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Summary: This kept me awake for a thousand nights and one night!
Review: This book is unquestionably a classic. My first introduction to the Arabian nights(this is much easier to type than the title of the book)was as a kid when my mother would recite these stories during mealtimes. Being an Indian, I was not new to the world of Jinnh's, magic carpets and other such wonders. Everyone enjoys the popular stories such as Alladin and Ali Baba(thanks/no thanks to Disney). However, this book is one way of getting to the real Arabian nights that have not been adultrated by Disney. Sorry Disney fans, but the truth is often bitter. The thousand nights and one night is a perfect source of transporting oneself to the ancient middle east. The land of the Caliphs ,where women were immensely beautiful and heros truly heroic. Each story in this volume is a wonder. There is much to be learnt from these stories since they reveal age old wisdom in addition to pure joy to the heart. The stories themselves go beyond plain narration and successfully give the reader an insight into the life in the ancient middle east. Oh! I know that the thought of people flying around in magic carpets sounds preposterous. It is the cultural background that I am talking about. The book reveals middle eastern charm, something that is to be found in traces even today if you were to visit the middle east.The book begins with the disillusionment of King Shahriyar by his wife, something that makes him an absolute tyrant. He kills her and then decides to marry every night and put the bride to death in the morning. The vizier's daughter who marries him decides to change his distressing behaviour for good. She starts the practice of reciting captivating stories every night that are left unfinished in the morning, thus extending her own life. This is the birth of the thousand nights and one nights. When I read this book, I spent several sleepless nights trying to finish it. I believe that it is a true classic just like the Iliad, Odessey, The Poetic Edda, Mahabharata and the Ramayana. A piece of the old world that we are lucky to retain.
However, I MUST add a note on the content. This book is definitely NOT for kids. There are plenty of adult language and situations that would definitely not do for a child. One must make allowances here since this book is probably a direct translation of the original text. In addition, there is a strong bias regarding non islamic communities. Since this book is but one for a four book series, the bias may not necessarily be a part of this book. While reading the entire series, I had to make allowances for racial and religious discrimination. Remember the age in which these stories were written and then try to forgive the original authors for their attitude and mentality.
On the whole, a wonderful read for people interested in old folk/fairy tales.

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Summary: Wonderful translation
Review: This is a complete English translation of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Before reading this, I started the Burton translation and never finished it. The language was very awkward, it seemed Burton purposely made it sound antiquated and in the passive voice. Instead of suiting the translation to the preconceptions Europeans had about both old and Eastern writings, Mardrus made a literal translation into French, and Mathers translated that into English. The result is not only a more acurate translation, but it's not the least bit awkward and is a joy to read. This is the only English translation of the book I recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting and Entertaining
Review: This is a wonderful collection of tales that reflect the greatness of Arab Islam. The translation is very modern: it is easy to read, yet it somehow conveys the flavor of the old times and exotic places. The tales are enchanting and entertaining. Some are very sensual. Originally they were intended as entertainment for the masses. But they have come to be a monument of world literature and a reminder of the glory days of the rising Arab culture.