Literary One Thousand and One Nights

[Bookworm_Girl]

I went with the Dawood translation after sampling several versions.

I liked this quote by A.S. Byatt:

What delights above all in the Arabian Nights is its form. Story is embedded in story, story sprouts out of the midst of story, like the Surinam toads out of the back of their mother toad, which Coleridge used as a metaphor for his unruly imagination. The collection resembles both a group of Russian dolls, formally similar, faces and colours different, and a maze or spider-web with threads and passages leading in all directions, both formless and orderly at once.

[Bookpossum]

I am enjoying Haddawy very much, fantasyfan. The stories within stories can get pretty convoluted, but I feel as if I am getting a flavour of the original.

Great quote, Bookworm-Girl!

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I bit the bullet and got the Haddawy translation. I think that my approach will be to read the Oxford edition and make occasional comparisons between it and other versions in the process in the hope of glimpsing something of the beauty residing in the imaginative world of the tales.

I did end up going with Haddawy too. I got the first, main volume and will see if I feel like reading the second ('apocrypha' as Bookpossum aptly calls it) after. I would like to read some of the more famous stories like the Aladdin one even if they weren't originally part of the tales but it will depend on how eager I am after volume one.

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I went with the Dawood translation after sampling several versions.

I liked this quote by A.S. Byatt:

Great quote; thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you went with the Dawood since three of us so far are using Haddawy for our primary source, so that the discussion of our current read will include more than one version to go along with any comments on secondary sources and past reads.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

I have got my library copy of the Haddawy and the first thing that struck me was that it is written as the stories are supposed to have been told. That is, dawn breaks when Shahrazad is part way through a story and so she stops at an interesting point, to keep her husband wanting more.

And I agree with you sun surfer - the essence of the work is that it is convoluted, with tales within tales. A kind of labyrinth of stories, almost mesmerising and definitely exotic.

I agree. The stories are like an onion. You peel off one layer and find another (ie another tale) which leads to yet another etc. A very enjoyable read whether it's your 1st time or your 100th time reading the tales. A true classic.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

A source that might be interesting is Arabian Society In The Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand And One Nights by Edward William Lane. It is available free from Project Gutenberg.

Thanks for the recommendation! I have been reading this book along with the stories. For a modern perspective I have also been browsing The Arabian Nights: A Companion by Robert Irwin. I have access to it through my Scribd subscription.

From Library Journal:
In this learned and exotic companion to the Arabian Nights, Irwin, a novelist and the author of The Middle East in the Middle Ages (Southern Illinois Univ. Pr., 1986), provides a history of its origins, translations, and textual editors; a treatment of the various literary approaches to the text (structuralist, folklorist, etc.); and insight into the work as social history. Irwin has, admittedly, concentrated on the "seedy and bizarre" aspects of the tales, asserting that the Arabic world of criminals, sorcerers, drug-takers, and adulterers is far less known than the edifying world of miracle-working holy men and sages. Though the Arab world long viewed the Nights as folk literature, in the West it has continued to exert enormous influence on diverse writers, giving way, only in the 20th century, to its rival genres, science fiction and fantasy. Irwin's soundly researched and provocative work is highly recommended for academics and interested readers of Arabic social history and literature.

[fantasyfan]

I ran across an oddity in the Haddawy translation. "The Merchant and the Genie" has three old men, each of whom tells a story. Now in Lang and the Mack Oxford version the tale of the third old man has disappeared and Scheherazade gives a lame excuse about not knowing it. Well, Haddawy follows suit.

In fact there is indeed a third story and it is in both Burton and Payne. It isn't all that outstanding as a story goes but if you want to read it, it is there. Since the Burton translation is free and easily available that would probably be the simplest way to access it.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

For a modern perspective I have also been browsing The Arabian Nights: A Companion by Robert Irwin. I have access to it through my Scribd subscription.

Excellent suggestion, Bookworm Girl!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

A source that might be interesting is c Studies From The Thousand And One Nights by Edward William Lane. It is available free from Project Gutenberg.

[Shameless plug]: it's also available on MR. epub mobi [/Shameless plug]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I ran across an oddity in the Haddawy translation. "The Merchant and the Genie" has three old men, each of whom tells a story. Now in Lang and the Mack Oxford version the tale of the third old man has disappeared and Scheherazade gives a lame excuse about not knowing it. Well, Haddawy follows suit.

I've just checked the Malcolm C. Lyons translation and it also has the tale of the third old man, which is hardly surprising since his translation is also based on the same Calcutta II edition that Burton used.
However, the Lyons translation is much closer to the original. For details see this Guardian article.

[Dr. Drib]

Those who are interested in the these stories (as am I), might wish to purchase "The Arabian Nights - A Companion," by Robert Irwin. This is an excellent ebook to have around and to dip into.

I also own the three volume set of "The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights," translated by Malcolm Lyons and Ursula Lyons.

My favorite that I own (in beautiful hardback editions, in addition to the ebook set), is translated Dr. J. C. Mardrus & Powys Mathers, titled "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night."

After reading whatever set one has on hand or thinking of purchasing, you might also wish to look into John Barth's novel, "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor". This one is not available as an ebook, unfortunately. Also, unfortunately, my uncorrected galley is in the U.S.A.

[fantasyfan]

I purchased the Kindle Edition of The Arabian Nights: Vm 1 by Malcolm and Ursula Lyons mentioned by Doitsu and Dr Drib. Volume 1 has a very good introduction which is well worth reading and the translation is lucid and flows well. I'll get the other two books in the set later and I suspect that this will turn out to be my replacement for Burton and Payne.

[sun surfer]

I'm enjoying it so far; I feel like it's the storytelling equivalent of the Minotaur's labyrinth.

In the version I'm reading (and the other version I considered reading) the girl is named Shahrazad but, though I've never read this before, I'm so used to the name 'Scheherezade' that it feels like I'm mentally pronouncing it incorrectly to think of it as 'Shahrazad' with only three syllables. I suppose this must be the more correct translation of her name since these newer translations are using it. By the way, does anyone know how Shahrazad should be pronounced? I'm thinking of it as 'SHAH-rah-zahd' but that's just a guess.

This book reminds me a bit of our selection 'The White Castle' by Orhan Pamuk from August 2014. While quite different it's somewhat of a similarly fantastical story and so seems like this, or stories like this, may have helped to inspire Pamuk with his story, especially considering his Arabic (Turkish) origins.

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I ran across an oddity in the Haddawy translation. "The Merchant and the Genie" has three old men, each of whom tells a story. Now in Lang and the Mack Oxford version the tale of the third old man has disappeared and Scheherazade gives a lame excuse about not knowing it. Well, Haddawy follows suit.

In fact there is indeed a third story and it is in both Burton and Payne. It isn't all that outstanding as a story goes but if you want to read it, it is there. Since the Burton translation is free and easily available that would probably be the simplest way to access it.

I thought there must have been a third story! In fact I guessed just that, that the third man's tale was less interesting and so was left out in this abridged version because something must be left out.

There have been other moments too where I wonder that as I'm reading, where I'm expecting her to tell a story about something and then she's just like, 'Nope you don't get to hear that one but what about this next one!' If it's actually the way the unabridged version works it's funny because you never know whether she's about to expand on a story or skip over it entirely, but it seems likely the unabridged version may have no 'skips'.

I also think the same about the shorter stories, that they were probably cut down. One night she'll tell a rather long story and the next it only takes about three paragraphs to get through the night. Well, maybe those nights they were... busier until closer to dawn.

I'm curious about how others are enjoying the stories, and since I almost went with the Dawood translation I'm curious how Bookworm_Girl is liking it.

[Bookworm_Girl]

The Dawood translation is fine. I am happy reading it. I mostly picked it because the book seemed to have a good selection of the most popular stories.

I liked better the Malcolm & Ursula Lyons version that I started with from my library. If I want to read more stories in the future, then I will choose their volumes.

[Bookpossum]

Do these other translations include the verse that keeps on appearing? In the Haddawy translation, various people seem to trot out what to me is mostly rather clunky verse, quite often with no obvious amplification of the story. I find that I am now tending to skip over it.

I took a break at the halfway mark through the book and read a couple of other books. I think these stories aren't really meant to be read in sizeable chunks, but were presumably told in short sections, or at any rate only one story at a time. It is certainly like a labyrinth, as sun surfer says.

I heard, O happy King, that the tailor told the king of China that the barber told the guests that he said to the caliph ...

I definitely feel the need for a ball of string so I don't get lost in terms of who is telling which story to whom and why!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I like your ball of string imagery.

The Dawood translation is pretty straight-forward and not too convoluted. It has section breaks and story headings for the stories within the stories which makes it easier to follow.

I also have been progressing slowly and alternating with other books to make it more enjoyable. For example, I split the story of "Sinbad the Sailor and Sinbad the Porter" over 3 days. I felt that the framework of the seven journeys were too repetitious to absorb in one sitting without fatigue. I am at 38% read.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

The Dawood translation is fine. I am happy reading it. I mostly picked it because the book seemed to have a good selection of the most popular stories.

I liked better the Malcolm & Ursula Lyons version that I started with from my library. If I want to read more stories in the future, then I will choose their volumes.

Thanks. As I read more I wonder if I should've went with the Dawood, solely because it's a good translation but at a shorter length (by about one or two hundred pages I think). I want to get more in but am finding that this type of book does seem like it would be better spread over a longer reading time (similar to what Bookpossum mentioned), so to get through it more quickly for the book club the shorter Dawood may have been the better choice, and then I could've jumped back into another longer translation at a later date. As it is though I'm still working on finishing up the Haddawy which I am enjoying.

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Do these other translations include the verse that keeps on appearing? In the Haddawy translation, various people seem to trot out what to me is mostly rather clunky verse, quite often with no obvious amplification of the story. I find that I am now tending to skip over it.

I know the sections you mean in the Haddawy. I thought maybe they were verses from the Quran? Or some other similar famous verses during the periods this was being written?