Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel
by Naguib Mahfouz
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 168)
Read in November, 1995
Another of my favorite writers. Mahfouz is a master story teller. He is a prolific writer, stylistically diverse, and I believe innovative. Nights and Days was the first of his novels that I read.
It is set in a mystical and magical Arabia, and thus somewhat allegorical. The novel begins on the day after Sharzad finishes telling her tales (The Arabian Nights) to the Sultan, and wanders from the palace to the quarters of the city. Each chapter reveals another story of those that live in the ci...more
It is set in a mystical and magical Arabia, and thus somewhat allegorical. The novel begins on the day after Sharzad finishes telling her tales (The Arabian Nights) to the Sultan, and wanders from the palace to the quarters of the city. Each chapter reveals another story of those that live in the ci...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I loved this book, but I didn't like it. I loved the way that it weaved together myth, social commentary, and allusions to the Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which is among my five favorite books of all time. Each chapter is a marvelous, largely self-contained meditation on art, literature, power, and the creation of morality in a seemingly empty universe.
But after I read each chapter I got a headache and had to put the book down for a few days. The writing is so focused and intense that I...more
But after I read each chapter I got a headache and had to put the book down for a few days. The writing is so focused and intense that I...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I like the element of sureality, of genies, of gods and parallel lives and dead governors and child molestation and murder and morals, but I could only go so far. And I got that far. Half way. More than a lot of books. But there's something about the style that I like in this book. And I really do like the overture of genies, of otherworldli incarnatons of desire and duplicity and racketeering.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2005
Thankless task, to try to write a review of Mahfouz. Simply put, he's a master of Islamic writing, a master of personality, of human folly, and even in translation he puts most of us to shame. Whereas you'd expect something kind of sweet, this bitter book is utterly human; which is to say, it is about cruelty and pettiness and the lives of those who live to closely together.
Flawless.
Flawless.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
an excellent book. very mystical and full of morals. Its mostly shahrazad telling stories to the sultan shahrayar. and then in his kingdom things are taking place that not normal. Evil jinns and good jinns are in this book and they influence the lives of the ppl in the kingdom.
A very good and entertaining story(s).
A very good and entertaining story(s).
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2007
Wonderful. Worried at first that it'd be a pseudo-pomo trainwreck, where everyone's got sass and all the princesses know kung fu (i.e. that Scheherazade's tales would be cynically manipulated to make obvious political points), but this goes much, much deeper.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I read this shortly after reading _Arabian Nights_ (Zipes translation) and found it to have the same clever and engaging style, with stories even more memorable than the original fables. It is beautifully written.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
written in a mystical, persian style that is wholly unique and mesmerizing. give it at least 50 pages. finish it and you'll be rewarded handsomely.
proof that magic does exist.
proof that magic does exist.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Fascinating retellings of the Arabian Nights. Mahfouz maintains the heart and soul of the original tales and adds a flash of contemporary styling. Quite beautiful.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Luminous characters and prose. You know you always lose something in every translation, but Mahfouz transcends all these (as always).
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Beautifully written. It's magical and poetic. Each charachter has his own story, which intertwines with others into a bigger plot.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I love this book. It's like adult bedtime stories. Not adult as in XXX, but adult as in literally adult.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
