Author: Malcolm C. Lyons (trans)
Published: 2008 (current ed)
Genre: fiction - Classic Lore
started: Sept.7/11
finished: Nov. 13/11
Initial Thoughts
I have been trying to get my hands on a complete set of the 1001 Nights. This may be the first set of volumes (3 in total) that include all the stories rather than just some of them, typically the best known. Like finding a copy of the complete original Grimms' Fairy Tales I am looking forward to reading these. The question is how much I will enjoy them. I have read other volumes in which the translation was tedious and not very exciting. This is a penguin edition which I tend to find is the best publisher of the classics so I have high hopes. Let's hope they wont' be crushed. ;)
((327 pages in, Night 50))
So far I find this translation of the stories to be more complete than an earlier smaller compilation of the Nights also by Penguin and to be far easier to read than one of the early translations (by Richard Burton) which I have also read and found more difficult to make my way through especially considering that it didnt' have breaks in the stories themselves while this collection is broken up into the actual Nights so that they act like chapters in a way. I find this a much easier way to read the stories and the like so that if I need to put the book down I dont' have to try and find an appropriate place to stop.
((Final thoughts))
It took me longer to read this than I would have liked (or would have thought). It was a bit of a challenge, not really a slog but the text was denser than I was expecting. Some of the stories are quite long and complicated and many are written a bit more like a history rather than the more supernatural/fairy-tale type tales that are better known.
The one thing that stood out was that in some stories, one in particular, that really showed the extreme prejudice that was directed toward the Christian world when the stories were written. I will not go into any detail but for me it was startling just some of the claims that were made though I'm sure if one were to look at Christian texts from the same time one would find that there is similar venom directed toward the Muslims of that time. I was expecting the Nights to be in a similar realm to the Grimm's Fairy tales (which are not free of extreme violence and racism either).
Many of the stories are pretty good though there are some that were quite long and were a bit of a slog to get through. At the same time many of the stories show an interesting perspective on what was going on at the time these stories were recorded and what was going on at the time.
There were only a few stories that I recognized in this volume and maybe only one or two that others would recognize were they not very familiar with the Nights. The stories I recognize are listed below.
List of common or well known stories found in this volume:
* The Fisherman and the Ifrit
* The Porter and the 3 ladies
* 1st Dervish
* 2nd Dervish -- I've found this set of stories in all versions of the Nights I've
* 3rd Dervish looked at even if it isn't as well known as Aladdin or Alibaba
* Story of the Lady of the House
* Story of the doorkeeper
* Nur al-Din and Shams al-Din -- see above comment on Porter stories
* King Shariman & his son, Qamar al-Zaman
--> or "The Ifrits' Beauty Contest" -- Like the above stories, I've seen this in more than one version
of the Nights as well as references in one or two
novels I've read...in one of these novels the second title is what
is given.
* Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
Would I recommend this book? i would but it would certainly depend on the individual
Who Would I recommend it to?
Anyone who is interested in stories from the middle east, who are interested in collecting "fairy-tales" or similar tales that include a mix of history and supernatural would probably like to check this version of the Nights out. Anyone intersted in the fiction and legends of the period in the Islamic world might find this interesting and people who are familiar with the crusades and what was going on in relation to that might also find interest in these stories as they give a different perspective that may be found in history books.
Who Would I not recommend this to?
I would not recommend this to children at all. Like the original fairy tales, these stories have their share of violence and racism as well as sex at other material not really meant for children to read. Anyone who is idiologically sensitive would not like this either I imagine. One has to take it at face value, keep in mind that it is a series of stories from around the 10th Century AD or before and that, like fairy tales, they aren't typically factual.
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