Robert Irwin

Ursula Lyons

"When the beautiful Shahrazad gives herself to the bloody-handed King Shahriyar, she is not expected to survive beyond dawn. But using all her wit and guile, she begins a sequence of stories that will last 1001 nights: stories of ìfrits and money-changers, princes and slave girls, fishermen and queens, and magical gardens of paradise. This volume also includes the well-known tale of Àli Baba and the Forty Thieves'." "Along with this landmark new translation, Robert Irwin's introduction discusses the many cultures The Arabian Nights has drawn on and the elaborate structure of the story-within-a-story that defines the collection, as well as the importance to the Nights of locked doors, sex and the recurring themes of money, merchants and debts. This edition also contains suggestions for further reading, a glossary, maps and a chronology."--BOOK JACKET.

The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights

Malcolm Lyons

Once upon a time, the name Baghdad conjured up visions of the most magical, romantic city on earth, where flying carpets carried noble thieves off on wonderful adventures, and vicious viziers and beautiful princesses mingled with wily peasants and powerful genies. This is the world of the Arabian Nights, a magnificent collection of ancient tales from Arabia, India, and Persia. The tales - often stories within stories - are told by the sultana Scheherazade, who relates them as entertainments for her jealous and murderous husband, hoping to keep him amused and herself alive. Three fantastic tales have been chosen from our new translation to introduce readers to the delights of the Arabian Nights: 'Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves Killed by a Slave Girl' is a well-known and well-loved classic, placed alongside the equally enchanting 'Judar and His Brothers' and 'Ma'rus the Cobbler'.

Three Tales from the Arabian Nights

Malcolm Cameron Lyons

"Once upon a time, the name Baghdad conjured up visions of the most magical, romantic city on earth, where flying carpets carried noble thieves off on wonderful adventures, and vicious viziers and beautiful princesses mingled with wily peasants and powerful genies. This is the world of the Arabian Nights, a magnificent collection of ancient tales from Arabia, India, and Persia. The tales - often stories within stories - are told by the sultana Scheherazade, who relates them as entertainments for her jealous and murderous husband, hoping to keep him amused and herself alive. Though early Islamic critics condemned the tales' "vulgarity" and worldliness, the West has admired their robust, bawdy humor and endless inventiveness since the first translations appeared in Europe in the eighteenth century. Today these stories stand alongside the fables of Aesop, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, and the folklore of Hans Christian Andersen as some of the Western literary tradition's most-quoted touchstones."--Publisher's website.

Tales of 1001 Nights

The Arabian Nights

Malcolm C. Lyons

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her next morning. To end this brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king tales of adventure, love, riches and wonder - tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, the Angel of Death and magical spirits, tales of the voyages of Sindbad, of Ali Baba's outwitting a band of forty thieves and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps. One of the best known and most influential works of literature ever written, this is the first complete translation into English of The Arabian Nights from the Arabic since the 1880s. It also includes new translations from 18th century French of the so-called 'orphan stories', for which no original Arabic text remains. In a wonderful three-volume, luxury, limited edition boxset, this is a truly beautiful object.

Ursula Lyons

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