Other Fiction Eliot, Charles W. (editor): Harvard Classics Volume 16 V1.0 9 Dec 2013

[GeorgeH]

The Harvard Classics Volume 16 (Anon) Published 1909

Edited by Charles W Eliot LL D. (March 20, 1834 - August 22, 1926)

Stories from The Thousand and One Nights

One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.

The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, South Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazar Afsan which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.

What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used to express heightened emotion, and for songs and riddles. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer.

Some of the stories of The Nights, particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", while almost certainly genuine Middle Eastern folk tales, were not part of The Nights in Arabic versions, but were added into the collection by Antoine Galland and other European translators.

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[Jellby]

The title page says the translation is by "Edward Blake lane". Apart from the missing capital, I think the translator's name is "Edward William Lane".

[GeorgeH]

Originally Posted by Jellby

The title page says the translation is by "Edward Blake lane". Apart from the missing capital, I think the translator's name is "Edward William Lane".

You're correct, it is. I'll be posting a new version for all the volumes over the next month or so and I'll be sure and fix that error. Thanks!