Customer Reviews

Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow, what a beautiful book. I love nicely bound books and the Everyman's Library editions are some of the nicest I own. I don't think one can be disappointed with this book. If you already know the story of Aladdin, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, etc and you're just looking for a nice edition, this may be it. Now, it is not the complete 1001 night obviously but certainly contains a few of the more recognizable stories. Also, the illustrations are quite beautiful as well.

This is a great quality hardcover. And a great price. A good addition to any library!

This vast collection of folk tales from India and the Middle East known as "The Arabian Nights Entertainments" or "The Thousand and One Nights" is a framework of many tales that were told orally for centuries before finally being written down, so they are not attributed to any one author. "The Story of Aladdin, or The Wonderful Lamp" takes up about the first hundred pages of this 346 page book, and the rest of the book is filled with other great stories and illustrations which feature among others, "Sinbad the Sailor", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", and "Prince Camaralzaman". Overall this book was extremely well written and entertaining, and I would highly recommend it for both children and adults alike. "The Story of Aladdin" is different in several ways from the Disney version but I liked it just as much or more. It is still the story of a poor boy who falls in love with the Sultan's daughter and with the assistance of a genie from a lamp wins her hand in marriage, but the thing I was most surprised to learn in this book was that Aladdin was actually Chinese, rather then Arabian as he is depicted in the movie. The Princess was also not called Jasmine, but Princess Badroulboudour. The Sultan is still her father, but Disney combines three of the book's characters (the African Magician, the Grand Vizier, and the Grand Vizier's son) to create their villain. There was no "Abu" the monkey, no flying carpets, and Aladdin although lazy, was no thief. Additionally there were several different types of genies in this book that inhabited quite a few things other then lamps. Rather than the nice blue version which Robin Williams plays of a genie in the Disney movie, in this book genies are considered to be big scary enslaved demons. Some also are more powerful than others. Depending on how powerful your genie was, rather than being limited to just three wishes, you could give him an endless amount of commands to carry out as long as you weren't ungrateful for the benefit you received in return for them. I was also surprised to see that Aladdin had a mother who played a big part in the story. From the movie you would think him to be an orphan. The tales of "Sinbad the Sailor" reminded me of the Greek tragedies. The stories were very good, but Sinbad seemed like a poor man's Odysseus from "The Odyssey" as he had to battle several monsters, and overcome several misadventures in order to return home. Just like Odysseus he even has to fight a Cyclops. I believe Sinbad takes seven trips in all and not once does he have a safe voyage. I would have thought after the third time this happened that all of the other sailors would have thought him to be a jinx and would have refused to have sailed with him, but for the sake of a good story I guess you have to ignore this type of oversight. I also think he should have been called "Sinbad the Merchant" rather than "Sinbad the Sailor" since he never actually sails any of these ships, but rather just travels upon them. There is always more than one captain who does the actual sailing. In one of the "Sinbad" stories when he is washed up on a desert island, just before he is about to die of thirst and starvation he is rescued by a "King Mihrage". I'm curious if this is where the term "mirage" originated from? There is also another Sinbad story in which the people he encounters have a custom for their married couples in that if one of them dies before the other, they still bury the living spouse with the dead one. I think this even covered in one of the Star Trek episodes I saw. I've never actually read the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" until now, but for some reason I had always assumed Ali was the captain of the thieves. I was surprised to find out in the book that he is just a poor man who stumbles upon the thieves hideout by accident in the story and that he is just lucky they did not find and murder him for discovering their secret. The star of the story is actually one of Ali's slave girls named Morgiana who saves Ali on several occasions by outsmarting the thieves. There are four type of religions represented throughout this entire book. There are Mussulmans (which if I'm not mistaken are a type of Muslim), Persians (who worship fire), Christians and Jews. All of the main characters are Mussulmans. Since for the most part these are mostly short stories I'm torn whether or not to include them on my listing of the greatest novels of all time, but they certainly are worthy of note none the less.

Nice book for youngsters - As advertised - Quick Ship - Recommend to all - Thank You!

I never left my chair when I read this book. 5 stars, a winner.