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From Preface: This, the “Aldine Edition” of “The Arabian Nights Entertainments,” forms the first four volumes of a proposed series of reprints of the Standard works of fiction which have appeared in the English language…. More >>
The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete
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#1 by Liam Wilshire on October 28th, 2010
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This review contains an index of location numbers where the titles of all the stories can be found. If you are reading this on your Kindle, and want to index this book in “My Notes and Marks,” you probably will want to go to your computer now.
About the book itself, I found it to be of good literary caliber. I have no idea as to its accuracy vis-a-vis the original Arabic manuscript, I only know it is far more readable than, say, the ultra-persnickety translation of Husain Haddawy. If you want to read a definitive translation, though, Haddawy’s wins, both from the quality of the manuscripts he worked with, and from his standards of scholarship.
This is the “Aldine Edition” of Jonathan Scott, published in 1811. It has an interesting history. An 18th Century Frenchman named Antoine Gallard made what was called “a delightful abbreviation and adaptation” of the tales into French. He worked from a 14th Century Syrian text, and his work was published in 1717. A century later, Jonathan Scott made a translation of the French translation, using an Arabic text for corrections. The result was a sort of “revised standard” version, which is what you have here.
I have struggled through the Haddawy version, and I can tell you, this one is a lot more fun.
To index this yourself, go to the location numbers listed below and highlight each title. You’ll have to do this 90-something times, but believe me it will be less work than I went through. [Note: these location numbers may cut off an "a" or "the" at the beginning of a title, so you may find you're better off going to the location number immediately before the one indicated. I'm not sure, because I had to find them using the word search feature. Also, in the longer, serialized tales, the sub-stories are not in caps, like the main story, so you'll have to look sharp.]
Here we go: Intro. chapter at 19; tales at 215; 329; 415; 478; 540; 620; 664; 688; 876; 1045; 1313; 1422; 1572; 1785; 2154; 2294; 2432 (Sinbad begins); 2468; 2545; 2622; 2732; 2860; 2933; 3044 (Sinbad ends); 3134; 3196; 3270; 3904; 4577; 4688; 4902; 5100; 5301; 5557; 5586; 5649; 5734; 5801; 5858; 5993; 6132; 7087; 8016; 8193; 8536; 9322; 10282; 10530; 10652; 10946; 11906 (Aladdin); 13354; 13407; 13558; 13733; 14101 (Ali Baba); 14551; 14736; 15191; 15967; 16590; 16641; 16736; 16746; 16839; 16958; 17012; 17176; 17193; 17267; 17502; 17557; 17732; 17740; 17757; 17773; 17844; 17984; 18056; 18198; 18240; 18357; 18436; 18500; 18613; 18681; 18813; 19354; 19386; 19508; 19581; 19625; 19678; 19716; 19752; 19866; 19899 (Conclusion). SPOILER ALERT: The Sultan decides not to kill Scheherazade after all!
Highlight these titles, and you will have an index in “My Notes & Marks.” IN REALLY SMALL LETTERS. I hope my occasional number dyslexia didn’t screw anything up. Happy reading.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by A. McKinlay on October 28th, 2010
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Having worked halfway through Richard Burton’s translation of The Arabian Nights on and off over the past year, I decided to start over with this kindle version. The text had been updated from the archaic English of the Burton text making it much more readable and the few typos easy to figure out. However, this book is mistitled “complete” in that the author decided to remove Shahrazad’s pauses at the end of each night (except for the first few) to make the text more readable. My greatest dissapointment so far has been to find one of the stories, early in the narritive, is missing. This has left me to wonder what else has not been included and searching for a different edition.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Dana Ankenbauer on October 28th, 2010
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I made it through half a dozen of the stories before deciding not to finish reading this book. The stories themselves are entertaining, although slightly repetitive, but the omission of Scheherazade’s pleadings for another night in which to finish each story was a disappointment. I understand the editor’s reasoning that the individual stories would be more enjoyable without that interruption, and for those who are only interested in the stories this would be a good download, although in that case the lack of an index becomes a bigger drawback. I, however, was looking forward to seeing where the author chose to stop each story to create a sense of suspense, so I decided to stop reading and wait until I could find a version that is actually complete.
There were also a significant number of typos, some of which were severe enough to cause confusion. I don’t feel that the free status of a book is an excuse for typos, but I would have tolerated them more if the book otherwise met my expectations.
Rating: 2 / 5