Customer Reviews

The Book of the Thousand and One Nights: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (Vol. 2) (Thousand Nights & One Night)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Almost nothing can be said about the Thousand Nights and One Night, except what is obvious to anyone who understands its substance. It is one of the truly essential pieces of world culture, and probably the most extensive universe of stories in history.

Something must be said, however, for those who are NOT aware of the extent of this work. This is not the simple batch of a dozen or so stories -- Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, and the like -- that most people think it is. This is over 2400 pages of narrative, comprising close on 100 stories -- some of which are themselves as long as novels, and many of which contain smaller stories within themselves. The stories range from the profoundly epic to the delightfully whimsical, and there is variation in mood and length throughout the series that it not only serves as a collection of discrete stories but functions as a unified whole.

As such, the attempt to read the Thousand Nights and One Night in its entirety can not be a halfhearted one. The reader must be prepared to invest considerable time in the reading. The rewards, however, are incalculable. The complete experience has few parallels in fiction, because few works of such volume possess such unity. Reading moves from the hasty and immediate to the comfortable and regular. The difference is akin to that between listening to a 3-minute pop song and listening to a 30-minute symphony. The individual stories fade into memory, retaining their own identities but also falling into place within the whole.

I will not attempt to address the individual stories themselves in any detail. Suffice it to say that they narrate love, lust, sex, war, peace, contemplation, action, commerce, politics, art, science, and many other things, in the spheres of the supernatural and the mundane. The Thousand Nights and One Night is a virtually complete panorama of human existence, with each story a component scene.

I will, though, address the issue of translation. I have perused other editions of the tales in varying degrees (although this is the only one I have read completely). In the first place, any translation which omits some stories is not worth consideration. Although there is some controversy over whether Richard Burton (the first to translate the tales into English) corrupted the original text and inserted spurious parts, there is nothing to be gained by being persnickety in this regard. This edition contains more tales than most others I have seen, and therefore is more likely to contain the "right" tales somewhere inside. On a less abstract level, this text is simply more fun to read than most others, and, as mentioned, there is more of that fun text to be read.

Also, it can be plausibly speculated that this translation is particularly likely to have fewer Burton-induced inaccuracies, since it is not in fact a direct translation from Arabic to English. This 4-volume edition is a translation into English, by Powys Mathers, of a French translation, by J. C. Mardrus, of the original Arabic. It is somewhat surprising that an indirect translation such as this should be of such high quality, but I have found it to be so. In particular, this Mardrus & Mathers version includes substantial verse passages (which in other translations are often rendered as prose) and is refreshingly frank in its translation of the more ribald passages (which are numerous).

The Thousand Nights and One Night is not merely a book that can be read; it is a world which can be experienced, and the memories of that experience can mingle almost indistinguishably with memories of reality. Only a work of this size can work on large and small levels, with many intricate details but also many large thematic components. As an added benefit, by the time you have finished reading the fourth volume, your memories of the first will be fading, so you can begin a new reading immediately, and experience the joys of the Thousand Nights and One Night all over again.

This is a complete English translation of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Before reading this, I started the Burton translation and never finished it. The language was very awkward, it seemed Burton purposely made it sound antiquated and in the passive voice. Instead of suiting the translation to the preconceptions Europeans had about both old and Eastern writings, Mardrus made a literal translation into French, and Mathers translated that into English. The result is not only a more acurate translation, but it's not the least bit awkward and is a joy to read. This is the only English translation of the book I recommend.

Having earlier in the year read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, I embarked on the 1001 Nights as the nearest equivalent from the Middle East. The Nights proved to be a wonderfully rich text, which evokes with unforgettable vividness the lives of rich and of poor in the great cities of medieval Egypt and the Levant; and the fantastic elements of magic and demons, and of voyages into exotic lands, show great powers of imagination along lines excitingly unfamiliar to us in the west. The version I first embarked on in all innocence was this Madrus-Mathers text; it soon excited my suspicions, and these were confirmed by reading Robert Irwin, `The Arabian Nights: A Companion'. The Mardrus version (in French) that Mathers rendered into English claimed to be an absolutely literal translation of a 'newly discovered' manuscript, but was nothing of the sort: it was a paraphrase which exaggerated and distorted certain elements in the original to make it appeal to the decadent taste of the France of Marcel Proust and André Gide. Mardrus was particularly concerned to make the work more sexy: the stories take on a prurience that is miles away from the spirit of the original. Powys did a very good job in translating this dubious text, but was the job worth doing? Despite the readability of his version and the elegance of his translations of the numerous poems contained in the text (often minimally related to the Arabic originals), the result cannot be preferred to the older version by Richard Burton or the recent one by Husain Haddawy. The trouble, however, is that Burton wrote in an archaizing style that is an acquired taste for a modern reader, while Haddawy has translated only a quarter of the original. I would recommend starting with the first volume of Haddawy, which translates the first and oldest part of the Arabic text (Haddawy's supplementary second volume is a mere selection of a few popular stories), and then sampling Burton, which is available on the internet. This is a fascinating world to explore, but the English reader is singularly poorly served. -- (2009) This is no longer so, since the appearance of a new English translation of the complete text, in clear modern English, by Malcolm C. Lyons. The price is something of a discouragement, it is true, though since you get almost 3,000 pages it is not extortionate. Let us hope that it sells well enough to enable the publication of a paperback version.

Absolutely this is the best translation. Re-translated from a literal translation of the works made in French, and then translated back into English, the wording is modern and makes for easy reading.

Be forewarned, however. This is only Vol. I of a four volume set. And you will not be able to buy Vol. III or Vol. IV new on [...] at this current time!

To get all four volumes, I was forced to take a loss on Vols I and II ( a $[...] loss ) and forced to order the whole four Volume Set, which only comes together in the whole set - which you will be able to find here after endless searching because for some reason searching by the title and author's names does not find the four volume set easily!

So now I have two copies of both Vol. I and Vol. II, which I will donate to someone.

Also, the Four Volume set was on special back order when I ordered it and it took five months to finally come!

You will need to buy all four volumes, however, in order to get The Tale of Ala al-Din and the Wonderful Lamp, which is in Vol. III. And to get the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves which is in Vol. IV.

Unlike almost all other Thousand Nights and One Night sets, you will get all thousand-and-first nights; if you can first find the whole four volume set, wherever it is hid on [...]!

Poetic, enchanting, and sometimes hilarious, the tales told by Shahrazad during 1001 nights of her captivity, are a classic, an enduring testament to the great culture of Arab Islam. The tales were really compiled over several generations and were thought to be a perfect item of appeal to the prurient interests of the lower classes. But as history demonstrated, the tales can entertain and enchant virtually anyone, regardless of class, ethnic origin, religion, or regional ties. These are culturally distinct tales with a universal appeal.

The language and subject matter is sometimes very adult. Hence Disney's and Disney-like versions that expunge the offending content. But this version is complete. All the entertainment is here. And the language is so natural, so easy to read, you may forget just how far back in history these tales have originated. These tales possess art and vigor, and the kind of confidence that is born out of faith. (And those who have interest in psychology may notice that although Shahrazad is waiting to be executed, she has no "death row" syndrome whatsoever. On the contrary, she epitomizes common sense and calm demeanor.) Reading this is hours of entertainment and relaxation, with some new knowledge also thrown in. But the only way to truly know these tales is to read them. So open the book now.

This book is unquestionably a classic. My first introduction to the Arabian nights(this is much easier to type than the title of the book)was as a kid when my mother would recite these stories during mealtimes. Being an Indian, I was not new to the world of Jinnh's, magic carpets and other such wonders. Everyone enjoys the popular stories such as Alladin and Ali Baba(thanks/no thanks to Disney). However, this book is one way of getting to the real Arabian nights that have not been adultrated by Disney. Sorry Disney fans, but the truth is often bitter. The thousand nights and one night is a perfect source of transporting oneself to the ancient middle east. The land of the Caliphs ,where women were immensely beautiful and heros truly heroic. Each story in this volume is a wonder. There is much to be learnt from these stories since they reveal age old wisdom in addition to pure joy to the heart. The stories themselves go beyond plain narration and successfully give the reader an insight into the life in the ancient middle east. Oh! I know that the thought of people flying around in magic carpets sounds preposterous. It is the cultural background that I am talking about. The book reveals middle eastern charm, something that is to be found in traces even today if you were to visit the middle east.The book begins with the disillusionment of King Shahriyar by his wife, something that makes him an absolute tyrant. He kills her and then decides to marry every night and put the bride to death in the morning. The vizier's daughter who marries him decides to change his distressing behaviour for good. She starts the practice of reciting captivating stories every night that are left unfinished in the morning, thus extending her own life. This is the birth of the thousand nights and one nights. When I read this book, I spent several sleepless nights trying to finish it. I believe that it is a true classic just like the Iliad, Odessey, The Poetic Edda, Mahabharata and the Ramayana. A piece of the old world that we are lucky to retain.
However, I MUST add a note on the content. This book is definitely NOT for kids. There are plenty of adult language and situations that would definitely not do for a child. One must make allowances here since this book is probably a direct translation of the original text. In addition, there is a strong bias regarding non islamic communities. Since this book is but one for a four book series, the bias may not necessarily be a part of this book. While reading the entire series, I had to make allowances for racial and religious discrimination. Remember the age in which these stories were written and then try to forgive the original authors for their attitude and mentality.
On the whole, a wonderful read for people interested in old folk/fairy tales.

My review of the 4 volume edition of "The Thousand Nights and One Night" by Mardrus and Mathers is based on the 1972 hardcover edition which is out of print; but you can still find used copies on Amazon which is where I purchased my copy for $50. There are problems with the Mardrus/Mathers version which I will explain below, but I definitely got my money's worth since I did eventually read all 2,342 pages and enjoyed them very much. The box set paperback edition is only 1,200 pages, which makes me wonder if it is abridged. Even if it is not abridged, I recommend you save some money and buy a good used copy of the hardcover edition which is a better value since the box set costs $100 (or did at the time I wrote this review).

This version is an English translation by Powys Mathers of a French "translation" by J.C. Mardrus from the Arabic. These versions appeared in 1923 and 1904 respectively. I've put translation in quotes the second time because scholars have determined that Mardrus actually created a loose adaptation of the original stories. Robert Irwin in his excellent book, "The Arabian Nights, A Companion", indicates that Mardrus lied about the source of his translation and "took elements which were there in the original Arabic and worked them up, exaggerating and inventing, reshaping the Nights in such a manner that the stories appear at times to have been written by Oscar Wilde or Stephane Mallarme." Irwin indicated that Mathers "did a good job on Mardrus's French, but whether the job was worth doing in the first place is another matter."

All that being said, how can I possibly give this inaccurate version 4 stars? To explain that, I need to consider other English versions available. These fall into 3 categories:
a) "Complete" multi-volume editions which include all the stories made famous by European writers/translators between the 17th and early 20th centuries; these cover all or most of the 1,001 nights of the frame story in which Sharazad tells stories to King Shahryar. The primary choices here are Mardrus/Mathers and Richard F. Burton, although Edward Lane and John Payne did do mostly complete translations before Burton.
b) Modern, accurate translations based on actual Arabic manuscripts (of which there are several); the most authentic recent one was done by Hussain Haddawy in 1990 but only covers 36 stories.
c) Anthologies which collect the most famous stories (whether authentic or not), usually in a single volume. Some of these are based on Richard Burton's translation while others are new translations. Note that the ones based on Burton often extensively modify his version to make the language less esoteric and archaic.

The most famous "complete" translation is the 16 volume one done by Sir Richard Francis Burton in the 1880s. Only 2,000 copies were printed as part of a subscription series; while you might find this original printing for sale on Amazon or elsewhere, it could cost you over $500. However, while writing this review, I discovered that Forgotten Books has recently published all 16 volumes which can be purchased separately for between $9 and $12 or a total of $164. Additionally, the complete texts by Forgotten Books are available for reading free online at Google's Books website. (If you own Amazon's Kindle, you can also buy the complete set in several editions for as little as 99 cents.)

The attraction of the Burton edition is that he wrote extensive footnotes and a terminal essay about the stories and the culture that produced them. In a sense, the footnotes and essay can be viewed as the main attraction of his edition. While its translation is not considered perfect, Irwin considers it more accurate and scholarly than the Mardrus/Mathers version. The problem with Burton's version is that his language is archaic and was considered eccentric even in his day and can therefore be hard to read.

This finally brings me back to the question of how I can give this edition 4 stars given its lack of authenticity. Assuming that you want to read a "complete" version of the stories, your primary choices are Burton and Mardrus/Mathers. While I have not read Burton's original translation, I can say that the Mardrus/Mathers version is very readable and enjoyable. While it might not be authentic, if I view it as a separate work of art inspired by the original, then I feel that it is highly successful. It is entertaining, funny, magical, exotic, sometimes erotic, and never boring. It also has the virtue of including some rhymed poetry within the stories, most of which are rendered through prose. While one could easily skip the poetry, the original Arabic did include poems (often representing songs sung by characters), so it is nice to have some included for atmosphere. Finally, the fact that it is "complete" gives one a sense of closure at the end when King Shahryar finally decides to spare the life of his wife, Sharazad (Scheherazade) after she has stalled him with cliffhanger endings for 1,001 nights.
So, I think the Mardrus/Mathers version is the best choice for readers who want a "complete" version that is easy to read and would rather not be distracted by anachronistic language and footnotes. Of course, those readers who do want to learn more about the culture that produced the stories or are interested in Burton himself could certainly read Burton's version instead of or in addition to this version. But if you want to learn more about the cultural background and are not as interested in Burton himself, then you are probably better off reading Robert Irwin's book which I mentioned above.

The Mardrus-Mathers version of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," more colloquially know as the "Arabian Nights," is one of the few near-complete modern translations in English. This work was translated from Arabic to French by Mardrus, then from French to English by Mathers. The stories themselves were composed and compiled over the course of several hundred years from the ninth through probably the fifteenth centuries. It is a work of staggering length; the four volumes together total 2,341 pages. The translation is unexpurgated, meaning that at times it is quite sexually explicit. And it is ironic that it is so widely known as the Arabian Nights, since very few if any of the stories take place in Arabia. Most of them take place in what is now Iraq, some in Egypt, and even one in China.

Many of the stories take place during the reign of Harun al-rashid, who was Caliph of Baghdad in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. He is portrayed as a wise, generally fair, but sometimes cruel ruler. He is in the habit of disguising himself as an ordinary humble citizen, then going out among the populace to see what people really think of him. He is quick to reward the virtuous and punish the wicked. Harun is an actual historical figure, but the stories are pure fantasy, involving magic potions, people turning themselves into animals, flying carpets, mythical giant birds like the roc, and so forth. Many of the stories will already be familiar and have already become part of folklore: Sinbad the Sailor, Ala al-Din (Alladin) and the Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. My own personal favorite was "The Tale of Sweet-Friend and Ali-Nur," a quite touching love story, even though it contains quite a lot of fantasy.

Most readers already know the context of the stories. Because a king has been cuckolded by one of his wives, he comes to hate women so much that he marries a different woman every day, then beheads her every morning. Sharazad, who knows a lot of stories, entertains him by telling him part of a story every night, always leaving off with a cliffhanging moment at the break of day. The king lets her live so that she can complete the story. When she completes the story, she very cleverly begins a new one and leaves it hanging once again so that she can live another day. This goes on for 1,001 nights, until the king finally realizes that he loves her and lets her live.

As I indicated in the title of this review, the main virtue of this collection is imagination. For sheer escapism and variety, these stories cannot be matched. They also provide an insight into Islamic culture that belies the negative image that that culture has acquired over the past few decades because of the acts of a few extremists. I can recommend these volumes without reservation.

For those of us Westerners who are looking for exposure to authentic Mid-Eastern historical literature, "The Thousand Nights and One Night" is a great place to start. The various stories throughout this volume are very rich and complex, which furthermore are illustrative of a culture that appreciates diverse and adventurous experiences.

I give this work a four-star rating for three reasons. First, there is a good amount a sexuality explicit narrative which made me personally uncomfortable at times. However, this wouldn't be a problem for those readers who don't have a problem with that sort of thing; this is just my personal feelings on the matter.

Secondly, the narrative line was often hard to follow. One of the qualities of this work is that there are often stories being told within the overall story, and indeed there are sometimes three lines of stories going on. This makes for a fairly difficult read at times, but is certainly manageable for even the average reader. Lastly, the stories can be repetitive at times. A couple of times I thought I was reading the same story twice.

Needless to say, this work is probably not "bed-time" reading for most people. It's a good translation which leaves several words untranslated, which is good because their English counterparts probably wouldn't accurately express the meaning. I often read with a dictionary or the Internet open so I could look up the meaning of the Arabic words. Other than that, a great and enlightening read which I would recommend to people looking for something different to dive into.

It is easy to see why some of the reviewers were harsh on the Mardrus-Mathers translation of 1001 Nights. After reading some of it, as well as reading some of the acclaimed Hussain Haddawy translation (London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990), it is evident that it is an unfaithful translation. The reason for this is not that the translators were actually bad at Arabic (or as bad at their own language as Richard Burton!) but because most of the Mardrus-Mathers edition, all four volumes, comes from manuscripts other than those acknowledged to be the "true" 1001 Nights (namely, the Syrian manuscript sitting in the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris). So, it contains many stories that aren't in the original "core" of the 1001 Nights tales known to Arabs. For instance, Aladdin and the magic lamp, Sinbad the sailor, and so on, are not really the true Arabian Nights (gasp!) Now, the Mathers edition does indeed contain stories that were part of the XIV Century Syrian manuscript, like the Tale of the Porter and the Girls, the Vizier Nur al-Din, etc, etc, but most of it is contrived for European literary digestion. Not kidding. If you want the REAL Arabian Nights and not a "translation" more or less contrived for the amusement of 18th century Europeans, read Hussain Haddawy.

Second, it's not even a direct translation from Middle Arabic (which is a b**** to translate into anything since Middle Arabic is a bit fuzzy and there are no good dictionaries or grammar books on it at all) but instead it's Mathers' translation from the French translation from Arabic by Dr Mardrus! Plus, 1001 to Arabs of that time period really means "an infinite number" rather than literally 1001 nights.

Yes, these are still some great stories and very amusing. That is why I'm still giving it two stars. But I'm taking away a couple because, not only is it really longer than it should be (we don't really need to sit through 1001 nights in four volumes, do we? especially when most of them were graciously inserted by Dr Mardrus just to add up to 1001) but it is also unauthentic.

I highly recommend Hussain Haddawy. But still, if you want to wade through four volumes at the cost of almost $100 instead of spending less than $20 on a real version of the Nights, be my guest.