The Arabian Nights, Sir Richard Burton (translator), Easton Press , 1981, Sealed

Description: From a review of a different edition in the WSJ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/fiction-book-review-1001-arabian-nights-annotated-scheherazade-and-her-repertoire-11637942575): In an empire long ago there lived a king who discovered his wife sleeping with a palace slave. Crazed by jealousy he vowed that henceforth he would marry only for the length of a night and each morning his new bride would be killed. After he had carried out his wicked agenda for some time, Scheherazade, the brave daughter of the king’s vizier, demanded that she be the next in line to the royal bedchamber. During the first night she beguiled the time with a fantastic story, breaking off at a moment of high suspense as morning arrived. The king agreed to delay her execution so long as she took up the tale the following night—and the reprieve was extended again, and again, until, after one thousand and one nights, the king saw the error of his ways. That is the premise of what may be the greatest treasury of stories in all of world literature... On display again is the spectacular panoply of storytelling, from tales of magic and wonder to murder mysteries to instructional fables to sexual burlesques... Though they have their origins in Indian and Persian culture..., the stories were first collected as early as the ninth century in the Abbasid Caliphate centered in Baghdad. In the following centuries diverse additions came from different Arab capitals, including Damascus and Cairo. Among the literati, who prioritized classical poetry, the anthology was not highly regarded, but the stories endured in the public forum, recited by marketplace buskers. Through oral transmission they seeped into Western consciousness. Then in the early 18th century the French Orientalist Antoine Galland initiated what has since become an avalanche of translations. But in “Les mille et une nuits” (1704-17), Galland did not simply translate the extant Arabic manuscript: Exploiting the text’s open-ended framing device, he added new stories, including those that have become the most famous, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” ...What one realizes is how vital hybridization is to the stories themselves. It comes as a surprise to read that “Aladdin” is actually set in an imagined version of China, though as Ms. Seale has written, “the story’s institutions are Ottoman, the customs half-invented, the palace redolent of Versailles. It is a mishmash and knows it.” The mixing often bears upon genres, as child-friendly fairy tales are juxtaposed with ribaldry or horror, and frequently, especially in the early Arabic tales, it finds formal expression in the delirious quantity of nested metafictions. In “The Story of the Fisherman and the Jinni,” for instance, we have Scheherazade telling a story of a fisherman, who tells a story of King Yunan, who tells a story of King Sindbad, each embedded tale echoing and mingling with the others. Yet because we are always returned to Scheherazade in the royal bedroom, stitching together tales to reform a despot, the ragbag never feels wholly random. It is, in mythographer Marina Warner’s words, “a gallimaufry with a purpose.”... BCES5/0kj7

Price: 45 USD

Location: Tucson, Arizona

End Time: 2025-01-10T23:35:19.000Z

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