|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Review
"Haddawy's translation is easily the clearest, most fluent and readable I have met." A.S. Byatt, The Sunday Times "The resourceful Shahrazad... has never been more entertaining than in this fresh and vigorous version of this immortal book." Doris Lessing, Favourite Books of the Year, The Independent"
Book Description
Now as sumptuously packaged as they are critically acclaimed, these are new deluxe trade paperback editions of the beloved stories. Husain Haddawy's "highly recommended" ("The Times") translation of "The Arabian Nights" is based on a landmark reconstruction of the earliest extant manuscript version. Readers of this classic will also want Sindbad, "beautiful versions of dozens more gems from the Arab story-hoard" ("New Statesman"), including "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp".
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
It is said, O wise and happy King, that once there was a prosperous merchant who had abundant wealth and investments and commitments in every country. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It is said, O wise and happy King, that once there was a prosperous merchant who had abundant wealth and investments and commitments in every country. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Adventure,
By
This review is from: The Arabian Nights (Hardcover)
I almost feel as though I'm piling on - another 5* review for Arabian Nights. But the book offers two specific marvels that I have never encountered in quite the same way.First, the structure of the book, with elegantly nested plots, and cliffhanger chapters which make it clear why the king could not bear to lose Sheherezade before the tale could end. Second, a set of twists and turns that may in fact be standard for persian/arabian texts, but were new and fresh for someone more used to the western canon. Wow. I'm certain that any reader will find great joy in the Arabian Nights.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ladder of Love,
By Jim Robinson (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Arabian Nights (Hardcover)
I read this book several years ago during a time in my life when I was free to devote a good deal of time to it. I immersed myself in it for quite a while, making charts and graphs to keep track of the intricate structure of stories within stories. When I was about half or three quarters of the way through, I began to experience a sort of spiritual excitement or intoxication, similar to experiences I had reading Hegel's *Logic*, or the works of Meher Baba, or some other works. I called the author and told him about this, and told him I thought it was a spiritual book. He said no one has done anything, as far as he knows, to examine or explain the book in that way. I believe many of the characters and situations are symbols for characteristics of the spiritual path; I can feel this level of meaning, but I am not sufficiently knowledgable in that area to really explain them fully. However, it is quite clear that the overall scheme of the book has a meaning.Scheherazade was a beautiful young woman of high status, living in a kingdom where the women had met a great misfortune. The king was betrayed by one of his mistresses, so he took the habit of recruiting a new mistress every night, whom he would slay in the morning to make sure he was not again betrayed. Scheherazade told her family, to their great dismay, that she was going to volunteer for this duty. The stories are the ones she used to engage the interest of the king, so that his curiosity was so great he would delay killing her for at least one more night. The first stories portray people of the absolute meanest and most crude nature, full of lust, violence, selfishness, suspicion, and a very low nature. Bit by bit, the tone of the stories becomes elevated, until at the end they are stories of unbelievably sublime love, self sacrifice, absolute humility and the willingness to undergo any suffering for the sake of the beloved. By this method, Scherezade raised the consciousness of the king, and liberated him and his kingdom from the thralldom of his previous state of ignorance. I hope one day to say more about the specific symbolic meaning of many of the characters and situations, which are extremely evocative and mean a great deal more than what is on the surface.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best version of the "Nights" -- hands down!,
By Scott Chamberlain "Historian and archaeologist" (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Arabian Nights (Hardcover)
I have loved the Arabian Nights since I was a kid. But its fame as a "children's book" has often been a disadvantage -- most editions are simplified, hobbled and sanitized. The unedited versions geared more for adults are a hundred years old, and often show their age. Burton, for example, is an impressive edition but the language is almost a parody of High Victorian English. This edition by Haddawy is almost as perfect as it could possibly be. First, the introduction is wonderful and definately worth reading on its own -- how many times can you say *that* about a book? It sets the stage for understanding the work, the problems in translating it, and the world the Nights came from. It is clearly, smoothly written. These strengths are carried over to the main text as well. The writing is so direct, modern, vivid, and thrilling! It effortlessly takes you into this vanished world of danger, love, magic and adventure. Many expressions are modernized, such as "demon" for "genie" or "God" for "Allah," which work well, although I wouldn't have minded the the more "romantic" terms. Haddawy explains his choice of stories... the full original text only contains about 300 nights worth of tales. Most of the famous stories were added later (Aladdin, Sindbad, etc.) in response to greater interest in the work. Readers looking for these stories should check out Haddawy's companion volume, "Arabian Nights II," which has these famous stories and shares almost all the virtues of this volume. Finally, these books are wonderfully put together: great paper, type, binding... very satisfying just as a physical form. For those who loved these stories, or anyone with a sense of adventure, buy this! Buy it now!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
