Arabian Nights: The Marvels And Wonders Of The Thousand And One Nights (Volume 1) (Translation)

Description

Enjoy the timeless tales of Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and many more in this first volume of The Arabian Nights. Upon learning of his queen’s infidelity, proud King Shahryar has her killed. As revenge on womankind, he decides to wed a different virgin every night, only to have her beheaded at dawn. Such is Shahryar’s practice for three terrible years—until he weds Scheherazade, the maiden who will change his life.... A breathtaking beauty, Scheherazade is as learned as she is sensuous. Her first night with the king, she uses her imagination, her eloquence, and more than a little cunning to regale him with a tale of genies and wishes, wisely cutting the story short at dawn. The king is so beguiled, he cannot have her murdered without hearing the story’s end. From then on, Scheherazade spends nights conjuring stories of flying carpets and fantastical journeys, always stopping with a cliff-hanger—and saving her own life. This edition follows the unexpurgated translation of Richard F. Burton, the renowned Victorian explorer. Intricate and inventive, these stories within stories continue to captivate readers as they have for centuries.

About the Author

Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.Zipes enjoys using droll titles for his works likeDon't Bet on the PrinceandThe Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.He completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. He has retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.