The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights v.2

Title: The Arabian Nights vol.2
Author: Malcolm C. Lyons (translator)
Published:2008 (current ed.)
Genre: fiction - Classic Lore

started: Feb.29/12
finished: Jun.09/12

As with the first volume it took me longer than I would have liked to read the entire volume. The way the stories are written does make it a little more difficult than a simple novel and yet the stories do give a bit of insight into what the culture and religion might have been like when these stories were first told. These stories are not entirely the sort where one might curl up for a couple hours and simply pour over them. They are not written in colloquial language that makes them fully accessible, though the language that is used is not too complex but rather is appropriate to the narratives told in the "Nights". If one is looking for an easy read then the "Nights" is probably not the first place to look.


Well known tales (or those that are often selected for various editions)
* The Ebony Horse
* 7 Voyages of Sindbad
* The City of Brass
         --> This title seems familiar but I could not say for sure if I recognized it from other translations
* The Woman and her 5 suitors
* The Ifrit's "beloved"
* Judar and his brothers


((The comments on recommendations are copied from the first volume.))

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.