Richard Francis Burton

Presents a collection of tales, including "Aladdin," "The Wonderful Lamp," "Sinbad the Seaman," and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves."

Tales from a Thousand and One Nights

The Arabian Nights

Trans Sir Richard F Burton

The Arabian Nights is your magic carpet ride to exotic lands full of wonders and marvels. First collected nearly a thousand years ago, these folktales are presented as stories that crafty Scheherazade tells her husband, King Shahryar, over a thousand-and-one consecutive nights, to pique his interest for the next evening's entertainment and thereby save her life. Among them are some of the best-known legends of eastern storytelling, including the 'Sinbad the Sailor', 'Aladdin and His Magic Lamp' and 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'. This collection features more than twenty stories, in the classic translation of Sir Richard Burton, published between 1884 and 1886, and full-colour illustrations by Renata Fucikova and Jindra Capek. The Arabian Nights is one of Barnes & Noble's Collectible Editions classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library.

Stories 1 & 2 were difficult to follow; probably due to the new introduction to language.

Story 3: Loved this one. It's the one I truly understand properly and I found it to be one of those typical stories you would tell and older child to chide them. 

Story 4: This one was just comical in all honesty. It made me laugh with how satirical and clever it was, much like a naughty child you jokingly tell off. 

Story 5: Confusing in some aspects for example in vocabluary but still so iconic. I loved this one. It was complex in some matters, such as family because there's alot of stress on names and titles but still good to read. 

Story 6 "The sweep and the Noble Lady": Probably one of my favourite so far because it was so funny to see the ending. Story 6 "The man of Al-Yaman and His Six Slave-Girls": This one was actually so funny because it was so out of pocket 😭 It's literatly just 6 slave girls told by their master to insult one another; one is white, the second brown, the third fat, the fourth lean, the fifth yellow and then sixth black and it's just so comical to see how they insult so creatively but still so heartwarming to read because they defend their looks against one another. 

OKAY THERE'S TOO MANY STORIES TO REVIEW THEM ALL, so i'm going to stop there but my only question is why are all these stories so obsessed with writting about women who commit fornication, adultery and things along these lines. Like 3/5 of this book are stories about this, and i'm very interested why this is the only plot line this mysterious author could think of.  I read all stories save last 2 and I can confidentaly say out of these 34 stories, I liked probably 4. It was just so boring and so repetitive and so unenjoyable to read. I had to like force myself to read it  and it was just boring. Read like 3 of the most famous ones then stop because there's no point in wasting your time. 

surtified™

Stories 1 & 2 were difficult to follow; probably due to the new introduction to language.

Story 3: Loved this one. It's the one I truly understand properly and I found it to be one of those typical stories you would tell and older child to chide them. 

Story 4: This one was just comical in all honesty. It made me laugh with how satirical and clever it was, much like a naughty child you jokingly tell off. 

Story 5: Confusing in some aspects for example in vocabluary but still so iconic. I loved this one. It was complex in some matters, such as family because there's alot of stress on names and titles but still good to read. 

Story 6 "The sweep and the Noble Lady": Probably one of my favourite so far because it was so funny to see the ending. Story 6 "The man of Al-Yaman and His Six Slave-Girls": This one was actually so funny because it was so out of pocket 😭 It's literatly just 6 slave girls told by their master to insult one another; one is white, the second brown, the third fat, the fourth lean, the fifth yellow and then sixth black and it's just so comical to see how they insult so creatively but still so heartwarming to read because they defend their looks against one another. 

OKAY THERE'S TOO MANY STORIES TO REVIEW THEM ALL, so i'm going to stop there but my only question is why are all these stories so obsessed with writting about women who commit fornication, adultery and things along these lines. Like 3/5 of this book are stories about this, and i'm very interested why this is the only plot line this mysterious author could think of.  I read all stories save last 2 and I can confidentaly say out of these 34 stories, I liked probably 4. It was just so boring and so repetitive and so unenjoyable to read. I had to like force myself to read it  and it was just boring. Read like 3 of the most famous ones then stop because there's no point in wasting your time. 

Sir Richard Burton

No library's complete without the classics! This new, enhanced leather-bound edition collects the beloved tales of Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard Burton. They are ancient stories, but they still enchant our imaginations today. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Sinbad the Sailor. Aladdin. These and the other Middle Eastern stories collected in Arabian Nights are delightful, fascinating, and fun for fans and first-time readers alike. This beautiful, leather-bound edition collects the classic tales of Arabian Nights in a new, redesigned format. Specially designed end papers, gilded edges, a ribbon bookmark, and other decorative elements enhance the reading experience, while an expert introduction provides new information and context for these well-known stories. Arabian Nights is a compelling look at a long-gone culture--and the perfect addition to any home library.

Quoth the Scheherazade the next evening, “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that...”
--------------------

The Arabian Nights. A Thousand and One Nights. A legendary collection of tales that once, according to the myth, saved a beautiful young maiden from being executed by the sultan until she finally captured his heart.

You may have grown up, like many others, with the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor. You may have watched Disney’s Aladdin. You may have heard of Ali Baba’s mysterious cave filled with wonders and his 40 thieves that guard it. So, naturally, you might think you are more or less familiar with the concept. Well, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. You are NOT prepared for what the original stories have to offer, and neither can you ever be in a lifetime. 600 pages into the book, and I still was not ready for the plot twists and absurdities until the last.

To be honest, I myself did not know what I was expecting when I first started, but it sure as hell was not THIS. For starters, the whole thing was so ridiculously sexist and racist (which is inescapable, as we are talking about the Middle Eastern culture around the 8th century). But also, it was RIDICULOUSLY entertaining.

The title of the story is never what the story is actually about. Ships are always wrecked. The good always prevail (or do they?) and the bad are always sliced into 4 with a sharp saber. Siblings must always be murderously envious of each other. A meal must always have meat as a dish. A story must NEVER end the way you think it will end. NEVER.
In summary, this is truly an acid trip of a read that will leave you reeling and cut you off from reality so far that you are desensitized to the sheer amount of violence, misogyny, racism, and sex. 

Luckily, I had a fantastic buddy to read this with, who kept me sane (or went insane with me) along this long, arduous, crazy journey while we read one story each night. We laughed. We stumbled in confusion. We stared in shock and horror. And then we laughed twice as hard. Thank you, Gizem-in-Wonderland. You are the pearl in my stuffed cucumber. You are the pit of my date that kills the ifrit’s son. You are the Delilah the Wily to my Zaynab Talu.

As for the introduction chapter to the tales, I only have one thing to say:

Carla Aquino

Ok....where o where do I even begin? This compilation of stories has been both a pleasure and an annoyance to read. Let us start off with the annoyances....because there are many. 1. The undermining of women! The fact that arab nations treat their women with such disregard pisses me off and it as much alive today as it was during the gathering of these tales. That aspect saddens me. However, there are few tales where in the end the woman is not looked down upon and instead the stories tell tales of love. Though I cannot bring myself to ignore the stories that speak of women being foul. 2. The almighty praising of Allah...I was ignorant in thinking when I sent out to read this that it would be filled with wonderous fairy tales. There was, alas, no joyous fairy tales...lol. I felt like I was converting to Islam (and by no means is there anything wrong with the religion or any other religion for that matter, but I felt like it was forcing itself on the reader). Instead I found a whole lot of praising to Allah the enamored, the almighty, the manifester of all things...the blah blah blah (no disrespect). 3. The fact that all evil "Jinn" are all black in skin color and the slaves are pale. I cannot take the racism amongst different ethnicities and women, my goodness! 3. The stories within stories...straight up annoying! 
Okay I will stop here with ugly review and move on....The pleasure I received from reading this classic novel (which the fact that it happens to be a classic read is a compliment in itself). So if you can get past all the ignorances... against women, the fact that Allah is the best, and racism, some of the stories were delightful...not very many, but there were a few. Possibly I will read it again in the future and feel differently. For now, these feelings stand.

Rachel

I had a hard time getting into this book at first but as I got more use to it I really started to enjoy it. Arabian Nights is short stories while a longer story is happening that is kinda forgotten after the beginning until brought back up again at the end. Some of the stories felt repetitive, dealing with the same things, events, and places but it got better and more unique as I continued. The only story I truly disliked was the last short story, just didn't have a good flow and I had no idea what was going on. Would of liked some more build up on the main story going on between the King who was killing women until the one telling the stories came, that would of been interesting to do a chapter on them here and there between the different stories just to keep readers reminded rather than spill it all in the end.

The Arabian Nights is your magic carpet ride to exotic lands full of wonders and marvels. First collected nearly a thousand years ago, these folktales are presented as stories that crafty Scheherazade tells her husband, King Shahryar, over a thousand-and-one consecutive nights, to pique his interest for the next evening's entertainment and thereby save her life. Among them are some of the best-known legends of eastern storytelling, including the Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. This collection features more than twenty stories, in the classic translation of Sir Richard Burton, published between 1884 and 1886, and full-colour illustrations by Renata Fucikova and Jindra Capek. The Arabian Nights is one of Barnes & Noble's leatherbound classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library.

The Arabian Nights Tales from a Thousand and One Nights

Reviews