Customer Reviews

The Book of The Thousand Nights And One Nights

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I'd always wanted to read this legendary book of 1001 Arabian tales--of romance and trickery, of sultans and sorcerers and genies.

As you probably know, the 1001 tales are told by Shahrazad (my edition's spelling), who pins little cliffhangers at the end of each tale, in an effort to keep her husband, King Shahryar, engaged in her storytelling so he won't kill her. (His first wife cheated on him, so he's decided to kill all of his subsequent wives to nip this problem in the bud.)

Frankly, I probably would have lopped off Shahrazad's head around Tale 250 or so. But I've got to give the King props for hanging in there, because the book gets better. The first part wandered around too much for me, and got fairly convoluted. My favorite tales were actually in the last half of the book--Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Al-Rashid on the Bridge of Baghdad, and Ala al-din and the Wonderful Lamp.

To be accurate, the 1,001 tales are more like chapters that make up eight larger stories (including the three mentioned above). The ones I liked, I really liked. They were such fun tales of adventure. (One little heads-up: The 1,001 Nights doesn't adhere to modern sensibilities. The words "wife" and "slave" are used interchangeably, for example.)

If you do decide to get this book, I'd highly recommend the version published by Assouline. It's a bit of a splurge, but it has beautiful colored illustrations throughout.

I ordered the Book,but got another one, not hardcover, softcaver
plus with a titelpicture of a nacked woman and a man, fien but it was
for an eleven year old girl!!! You could see it on the giftcard attached to the book.
book is not worth the prize.
like to get answer.

The tales just go on and on, and would probably add up to more than 1001. You need a lot of courage, detrmination and time to go through the entire collection.

The setting is medieval Islamic world. The tales offer an interesting window into the psyche of the tellers and the listerners.

Two features stand out in these stories. One is the continuing theme of 'betrayal' by women and unbridled lust by men. ... The ... prowess of 'negroes' (who go around servicing their masters' wives) appears to be a major concern for the story-tellers. The language is quite explicit.

The second feature is how the story-tellers appear to be obsessed with wealth and riches. However, there is very little mention of how these riches are to be produced -- mostly they appear as if by magic or are endowed by kings. No one has to work for them. There are few, if any, moral principles, except for a continuing emphasis on faith in Allah and his prophet. It is interesting to speculate what effect these stories would have had on the region's culture and economy over a thousand years of telling. If popular stories affect a culture's world-view. then you have here a very dangerous set of tales.

There are some poignant moments. At times, some of the characters display rare courage and honesty. You also learn how curiosity can kill the cat in a thousand and one ways. The Khalifa and the kings try to be just most of the time. Some of the wazirs are heroic, though others are very crooked. The description of beauty (male or female) is generally quite exquisite. The narrative also spends a lot of time and effort on describing places, chambers and palaces in detail -- so you can almost see them with your eyes. This is perhaps the key to the magic of these tales.

The set I have is a four volume set by Routledge (The Book of Thousand Nights and One Night (4 volume set) (Volume 1-4)), and does not contain any illustrations. Fortunately :), the present volume is an abridged version, which is just as well!

Certainly an invaluable piece of world's cultural heritage -- though you may differ on their contribution to building a better world.

I ordered this book primarily because of the illustrations by Leon Carre. I just purchased a tarot deck by Lo Scarabeo which featured his work from The Thousand and One Nights so I thought it would be interesting to see the originals. There are only a few illustrations in this book, and, note that the book is abridged. I am disappointed with how few illustrations there are considering how nice the rest of the book looks. If you are interested in Leon Carre's work, the tarot deck will have many, many more images for you to enjoy.

This is a big book (423 pages - and it's abridged!) and the book is lined in gold leaf on the outside. There are 22 full color plates of French painter Leon Carre's art and 8 illuminations by Algerian painter Mohammed Racim. This book is listed as having 400 illustrations, and the majority of those are the same black inked filigree design that is repeated throughout the book.
If you are Leon Carre fan, you are better served to purchase the Lo Scarebo tarot deck The 1001 Nights (which I believe now has a contract with Llewellyn - the cards I recently got has their logo on the side of the box). If you are a fan of the Arabian Nights, this is a lovely book, although a bit pricey for the number of stories you're getting.