The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 (The Arabian Nights, 2)

A couple of years ago I read an abridged version of the 1001 Nights, which was originally published by Penguin Classics in the 1950s. I liked it so much I decided to read the whole thing, which is now published by Penguin Classics in a more modern translation from 2005. Be warned, though. The unabridged version runs to three volumes, each of around 900 closely printed pages. Volume II covers nights 295 to 719 and includes the tale of Sindbad and his seven voyages. There is also a useful introduction describing the various European translations of the text over the last four hundred years, as well as a glossary and some maps of Baghdad and Cairo.If you think that Shahrazad tells 1001 separate tales, you’ve been led astray. What you get here are a serious of tales within tales within tales. Some of these inter-linked tales last for up to forty or fifty nights in some cases. If that sounds a bit daunting, it isn’t. You soon get the hang of it. What happens is that in many of the tales a character will start telling a tale about someone else, and on it goes. There is a useful index at the end showing how the tales are linked. Splitting these tales into “nights” is a handy device because it splits the tales into bite-size chunks. Some “nights” are shorter than others – barely a page in some cases. Either it’s summer or Shahrazad and her husband were otherwise engaged for part of the night. The “nights” are also a reminder that Shahrazad’s life is on a knife edge. If she fails to entertain the tyrannical King Shahriyar sufficiently to make him want her to continue her story-telling the following night, she faces the chop. Literally. Fortunately, she is a narrator of genius and the demanding king and demanding reader are equally entertained.One observation (assuming that this is an accurate translation): blackness is frequently associated with wickedness and ugliness. By contrast, beautiful characters are not just white. They have silver skin and are compared to the moon. Male and female beauty are often described using identical terms. At times beautiful men have the same physical characteristics as beautiful women. There is a strong homoerotic element in some stories with some male characters either openly homosexual or seemingly unaware of their homosexuality as they feel a strong attraction for a beautiful young man. There is a lot of wine drinking. There is an obsession with wealth and palaces and political power and signs of early capitalism with lots of trading and wealth acquisition going on. There are women who seem to be living independently, often with vast wealth and making their own decisions about marriage. There are women who are highly intelligent and inventive, especially the trickster Dalila the Wily (nights 698 to 708). Amazing how she gets away with it.Highly entertaining and I am looking forward to reading Volume III.

I still haven't finished the first volume! But so happy for this accessible translation. Good introductions and background to the world in which the stories were set.

Great book, wonderful stories, beautifully translated.

Only on volume one at moment

What an excellent collection of stories, from the one's that you _think_ you know to those that are completely new.

Nicely readable as kindle edition

great

Read all three books as currently doing research for a potential film....