New Arabian Nights [Hardcover]

R. L. Stevenson (Author), 1stWorld Library (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - During his residence in London, the accomplished Prince Florizel of Bohemia gained the affection of all classes by the seduction of his manner and by a well-considered generosity. He was a remarkable man even by what was known of him; and that was but a small part of what he actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary circumstances, and accustomed to take the world with as much philosophy as any ploughman, the Prince of Bohemia was not without a taste for ways of life more adventurous and eccentric than that to which he was destined by his birth. Now and then, when he fell into a low humour, when there was no laughable play to witness in any of the London theatres, and when the season of the year was unsuitable to those field sports in which he excelled all competitors, he would summon his confidant and Master of the Horse, Colonel Geraldine, and bid him prepare himself against an evening ramble. The Master of the Horse was a young officer of a brave and even temerarious disposition. He greeted the news with delight, and hastened to make ready. Long practice and a varied acquaintance of life had given him a singular facility in disguise; he could adapt not only his face and bearing, but his voice and almost his thoughts, to those of any rank, character, or nation; and in this way he diverted attention from the Prince, and sometimes gained admission for the pair into strange societies. The civil authorities were never taken into the secret of these adventures; the imperturbable courage of the one and the ready invention and chivalrous devotion of the other had brought them through a score of dangerous passes; and they grew in confidence as time went on.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 396 pages
• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421808595
• ISBN-13: 978-1421808598
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor publishing quality hinders good reading experience, April 21, 2001

By 

Mycroft Eloi (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Arabian Nights (Paperback)

This is not a review of the content of the book, rather I'd like to comment on the publishing quality. This book is an "instabook", which I assume to mean that it is printed after it is ordered. There doesn't seem to be any mention of this on the book description page on Amazon. The results of this "instabook" printing are as follows: low quality paper cover and pages; sloppy cut on the exposed edges of the book; numerous typos - averaging 1 per 1.5 pages; misalignment of paragraphs sometimes cutting words in half. All this would be acceptable if the intent of this book and others like it was to deliver classic books at a very affordable price. But! for [the price] it is a complete RIPOFF!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not really the new Arabian Nights, but a fine substitute, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: New Arabian Nights (Paperback)

At the heart of the book are the six (or two, depending on how you count) stories about Prince Florizel ... these stories if any capture something of what "The Arabian Nights" would have been if it had been written in the nineteenth century. The central character is an impossibly noble and high-minded Prince Florizel, who the author appears to believe in with the utmost seriousness - at least until the very end. They tend to begin with a mystery so intriguing that it doesn't even matter if the solution is less brilliant than we would have thought. "Ruritanian romance" is the best description. Ruritania itself is not so Ruritanian as this.

The non-Florizel stories are none of them favourites of mine - which is merely to say that I don't rank them up there with, say, "The Bottle Imp". All of Stevenson's short fiction is worth reading.