Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Arabian Nights (Great Tales) by Richard, Sir Burton, Philip Madoc ISBN: 9-6263402-9-0 Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 February, 1995 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 3 List Price(USD): $19.98 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.04 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful story of a woman who tells tales to save her life
Comment: This is the story of Shahrazad, the wife of a king,who tells tales well
enough to save her life. Her husband, King Shahryar, has been
following the edict that he must kill his wives after their first night
together. For a thousand and one nights Shahrazad tells tales that
capures the king's attention causing him to let her live in order to hear the end of each tale and finally to fall in love with her.
The tales themselves are prose in action. The lessons are
plentiful and still relevant today. This is a book that will enrich a reader's life, one that a family could read aloud to each other
and have fun. A great classic not to be missed.
Rating: 4
Summary: Eastern Gem
Comment: To write or even begin to write a book review on a classic, whose fascination has captivated generations, is a task not light. This is especially so for The Arabian Nights (or more affectionately called The Stories of A Thousand Nights and A Night), a compilation of stories, of stories within stories, told and untold (in the form of interpolations and ommisions) by various authors and finally translated by the Western Arabic Scholar Sir Richard Burton.
Well known by now, the main story-teller is Princess Shahrazad, who, well-polished in the arts of the learned and versed in manners of telling anecdotes, tells the King Shariyar tales after tales for a thousand and one nights. This saves Princess Shahrazad from the wrath of the King, a victim of a treacherous, adulterous wife, who was wont to kill, on the very next day after the wedding night, every girl whom he marries, as revenge for the dishonour suffered at the hand of his unfaithful wife.
Princess Shahrazad told stories of love, of adultery; of Kings and Princesses; of animals; of Jinns and Ifrits; of merchants and of porters; of heroes and their travels; of villains and their nefarious devices. Some are very famous such as Alaedin, Sinbad and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves while others are less known like The Ebony Horse (a story about a magical horse that the hero rode to travel far and wide) and The Porter and The Three Ladies of Baghdad. The latter is a wonderful story made up of stories told by one-eyed merchants and by beautiful ladies who were in one another's company.
An especially captivating aspect of the book was the weaving of stories within stories and even further within stories. I read with childlike delight the stories, even if I did not understand the beautiful old English used by the translator. At times, it can be quite confusing to understand who is telling the story (Princess Shahrazad or her anecdotal characters) but the heading at the beginning of every story is helpful to reflect the raconteur behind it.
The tales told are mainly of light lore, fantasy and love. It is different from classics say from China that are very didactic. The tales within the Arabian Nights are light-hearted and amusing yet only some are moral stories (that of a rich man who was too proud too die and eventually did and others of triumphing heroes displaying goodness). More than half of the stories are of charming Princes whose wits are captivated by the beauty of Princesses and such tales end in happy ways. But the story-teller (whoever that may be, Princess Shahrazad or others within her stories) does not lack humility and ample reverence by way of encomium is given to God Almighty, a characteristic feature of Arabian literature I suppose.
Given my lack of historical insight into the background of the compilation and the inability to distinguish between what is purely Arabic as opposed to Persian, this review lacks a better critique of the book. But history is the best critique of all and the fact that the magic and marvel of the tales have endured for centuries bears testament to this book as a gem among of the Near East.
Rating: 1
Summary: Some Nights Are Missing
Comment: This is not the Complete Arabian Nights, some nights are missing, I bought this E-Book for a particular night- "Ma'aruf The Cobbler And His Wife Fatimah", but it was not there.
I think it's better to buy the Paperback edition to get all 1001 nights, or what we Arabs call it "Alf Laila wa Laila".
 |
Title: The Arabian Nights (Everyman's Library) by Husain Haddawy, Muhsin Mahdi ISBN: 0679413383 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 01 July, 1992 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca (Volume 1) by Richard F. Burton ISBN: 0486212173 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 June, 1964 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: The Perfumed Garden by Richard Francis Burton ISBN: 0892814438 Publisher: Inner Traditions International Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography by Edward Rice ISBN: 030681028X Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 05 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
 |
Title: The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology (Signet Classics (Paperback)) by Umar Ibn Muhammad Nafzawi, Shik Netzawi, Mary S. Lovell, Richard Francis Burton ISBN: 0451526597 Publisher: Signet Classics Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
