“A fine new translation… Bawdy, colloquial and wondrously inventive, the tales have influenced such disparate writers as John Barth, D.M. Thomas, Jorge Luis Borges and Martis Amis, all of whom have embraced Shahrazad as the ultimate symbol of the storyteller’s art.” -Michiko Kakutani, New York Times.
“The resourceful Shahrazad… has never been more entertaining than in this fresh and vigorous version of this immortal book.” -Doris Lessing, The Independent.
Husain Haddawy has taken the text found in a fourteenth century Syrian manuscript that was originally edited by Mushsin Mahdi titled The Arabian Nights (1990) and translated it for a new generation.
The original text tells the story of Shahrayar, king of Persia, who after killing his unfaithful wife, has swore to marry a woman for one night only to have her killed in the morning. This continues until the vizier’s daughter offers herself as his wife.
Shhahrazad is a brave young woman with a gift for storytelling and hopes it will save her life. She begins to tell the king a story but at first light, stops the story at a cliffhanger moment. She then begs to live another day to finish the tale. For 1001 nights, she keeps the story going, bearing the king three children and in the end winning his heart and saving her life.
Each tale somehow fits into the next, usually with a host of new characters, each with his or her own story to tell. There are stories such as The Story of the Merchant and the Demon which leads to The First Old Man’s Tale and The Second Old Man’s Tale. There are six brothers who each get their own tales at one point. This tale is truly a masterpiece and someone an author can apprise to be, a storyteller who can keep their reader wrapped up in a story for a thousand and one nights.
The Arabian Nights can be found in your local library, the website for the Bergen County Cooperative Library system can be found here or at your local Barnes and Noble in Hacknesack.
The Arabian Nights is the ninth and final installment in Near an Far East month.
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