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The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Volume 2 of 4
Rendered into English from the literal and complete French translation of Dr. J.C.Madrus by Powys Mathers.
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 800
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 30, 2020
I enjoyed this but again, absolutely NOT suitable for children or for those of a 'fastidious' disposition. Sex features heavily between not just man/woman but in many varieties.
Also, lots of adventures where people go from poverty to riches and back again almost in the blink of an eye.
Struck by how often the Sultans or Khalifs just give high positions of authority to people just because they like the way they look or, for example, an extremely good thief is made chief of police.
Again, as with the last volume, these stories date back 1200 years so some may find the level of racism which we consider unacceptable today difficult to handle.
One story involves Lake Qarun in the Fayoum which I have been to and where I heard there was a legend that there was treasure in the lake. Whether that legend comes from the story or whether the legend existed at the time the story was written maybe one will never know!
Also, lots of adventures where people go from poverty to riches and back again almost in the blink of an eye.
Struck by how often the Sultans or Khalifs just give high positions of authority to people just because they like the way they look or, for example, an extremely good thief is made chief of police.
Again, as with the last volume, these stories date back 1200 years so some may find the level of racism which we consider unacceptable today difficult to handle.
One story involves Lake Qarun in the Fayoum which I have been to and where I heard there was a legend that there was treasure in the lake. Whether that legend comes from the story or whether the legend existed at the time the story was written maybe one will never know!
February 21, 2010
This second volume of the collection of Arabian mythology was a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the stories were familiar (such as the tales of Sindbad the Sailor) but most weren't. I was rather surprised by the amount and variety of sex involved, I guess I'm used to the Disney-fied versions. Towards the end of the volume I started to find the stories getting somewhat repetitive and a bit dull so I'm not sure that I wouldn't have cut off Shahrazad's head (the person telling the stories) before the thousand and first night
March 26, 2013
One of my memories of life in Saudi Arabia.
October 5, 2017
There may be a temptation to offer children the unabridged version of certain classics, but this would be ill-advised in the case of The Thousand Nights and One Night. The contents are certainly not suitable for children. In fact the stories are very vulgar and unbelievably filthy.
The vulgarity lies not just in the occasional crudity of the language. Reading it in translation, I am not entirely sure how the original text reads. It lies more in the actions of the characters and animals in the book. We have plenty of gratuitous references to bodily functions, especially farting.
The more striking feature of the stories however is the amount of sex in them. There are a lot of sexual encounters of all kinds in The Thousand Nights and One Night. In one story, a woman posing as a man is obliged to marry a woman until her partner shows up. During the time that she waits for him, the two women engage in lesbian encounters. After that he marries both women, and spends alternate nights with them, whilst they spend time together during the day, presumably continuing their affair. The Islamic practice of polygamy is employed here to enable some distinctly naughty lifestyle choices.
In another story, a butcher discovers that a woman is having sex with an ape, and appears to be enjoying the experience. He kills the ape, but does not appear to regard the woman’s escapades as being too perverted to prevent him from wishing to marry her himself after she has been cured of the malady that caused this behaviour.
Let’s look at another story, and there are plenty of other examples of sexual encounters of an unusual nature for an old Middle Eastern text. This is less of a story and more of a discussion, as a gay man and a woman discuss whether it is better for a man to enjoy his own sex or the opposite sex. While the argument comes down (of course) in favour of heterosexuality, there is still only a mild disagreement with the gay man, and certainly no condemnation of homosexuality or threat of punishment. Indeed he supports his arguments by freely quoting passages from the Qur’an.
We should not make the mistake of assuming that this sexual freedom stems from a liberal attitude however. The gay man defends his lifestyle by pointing out that the Qur’an argues that women are only half as valuable as men. Even the female debater concedes this general point whilst arguing that in particular instances women are better.
There are also the usual bigoted comments about Christians, Jews and black men in this part of The Thousand Nights and One Night. Occasionally though we see sympathetic characters who belong to these groups, thereby revealing the fact that there is more than one writer at work. Indeed some of the stories are clearly derivative. One of the Sinbad stories is very obviously lifted from Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops in The Odyssey.
Another mistake that we should not make is to assume that The Thousand Nights and One Night is pornography or even erotica. The stories are filled with sex, but the descriptions are never very detailed. It is often more a series of humorous and broad allusions to sexual encounters. I still find it astonishing that King Shahryar does not question Shahrazad a little more closely about her seemingly wide knowledge of sexual practices. He is certainly curious to know more about them, but his is not worried about why she knows more than him.
This is not to say that King Shahryar is starting to mellow in this second volume. As the volume covers nights 170 to 487, this means that he has been married to Shahrazad for over five months at the beginning of the volume, and for well over a year at the end of the second instalment. It might have been thought that he would have learnt to love Shahrazad by now. Instead he continues to threaten to kill her if he does not like a story or if she cannot quickly think up another good one. If anything the threats are more frequent in this part of the book than they were in the first volume.
No wonder that even after all this time her poor father turns up every morning with her shroud. The remarkable thing is that Shahrazad continues to try so hard to stay alive and married to her tyrannical husband, but the will to live is apparently strong, and she continues to spin more stories to ensure her survival.
As in the first volume, these stories are astonishingly varied. The stories are generally of a fantastic nature, and many are romances. There is usually a happy ending, but not always. The final story about the enchanted bag ends with the murder of the hero by his two unworthy brothers. This is not the first story in which a man has had to support two treacherous siblings, and this shows the limitations of The Thousand Nights and One Night. Characters and events are interchangeable, and one character blends into another.
There are plenty of other diverse stories. Sympathy the Learned provides supposedly learned debates, some of them far more silly than the writer seems to think they are. There are a number of very short tales that make a quick point and then finish. Other tales rely on cynical and cruel comedy, such as the amusing con-tricks of Delilah-the-Wily and her daughter Zainab-the-Cheat.
The most famous tales in this volume however are those of Sinbad the Sailor, perhaps a late addition to the Arabian Nights, and not found in earlier versions. Sinbad went on to become the subject of many latr stories and movies, but the original Sinbad tales are again not suitable for children. Men are eaten alive, acts of cannibalism are performed, and even Sinbad is at one point forced to stay alive by murdering people when he is trapped in a pit.
Curiously he never defends his actions but simply states what he did for survival. As is always the case with fantasy, logic is not a strong point of these stories, and we may well ask why Sinbad keeps going back to sea when every voyage ends so appallingly.
The Thousand Nights and One Night is never subtle or clever, but the stories are imaginative and amusing, and there is much diversity in their content. They are rarely boring, and never for long.
The vulgarity lies not just in the occasional crudity of the language. Reading it in translation, I am not entirely sure how the original text reads. It lies more in the actions of the characters and animals in the book. We have plenty of gratuitous references to bodily functions, especially farting.
The more striking feature of the stories however is the amount of sex in them. There are a lot of sexual encounters of all kinds in The Thousand Nights and One Night. In one story, a woman posing as a man is obliged to marry a woman until her partner shows up. During the time that she waits for him, the two women engage in lesbian encounters. After that he marries both women, and spends alternate nights with them, whilst they spend time together during the day, presumably continuing their affair. The Islamic practice of polygamy is employed here to enable some distinctly naughty lifestyle choices.
In another story, a butcher discovers that a woman is having sex with an ape, and appears to be enjoying the experience. He kills the ape, but does not appear to regard the woman’s escapades as being too perverted to prevent him from wishing to marry her himself after she has been cured of the malady that caused this behaviour.
Let’s look at another story, and there are plenty of other examples of sexual encounters of an unusual nature for an old Middle Eastern text. This is less of a story and more of a discussion, as a gay man and a woman discuss whether it is better for a man to enjoy his own sex or the opposite sex. While the argument comes down (of course) in favour of heterosexuality, there is still only a mild disagreement with the gay man, and certainly no condemnation of homosexuality or threat of punishment. Indeed he supports his arguments by freely quoting passages from the Qur’an.
We should not make the mistake of assuming that this sexual freedom stems from a liberal attitude however. The gay man defends his lifestyle by pointing out that the Qur’an argues that women are only half as valuable as men. Even the female debater concedes this general point whilst arguing that in particular instances women are better.
There are also the usual bigoted comments about Christians, Jews and black men in this part of The Thousand Nights and One Night. Occasionally though we see sympathetic characters who belong to these groups, thereby revealing the fact that there is more than one writer at work. Indeed some of the stories are clearly derivative. One of the Sinbad stories is very obviously lifted from Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops in The Odyssey.
Another mistake that we should not make is to assume that The Thousand Nights and One Night is pornography or even erotica. The stories are filled with sex, but the descriptions are never very detailed. It is often more a series of humorous and broad allusions to sexual encounters. I still find it astonishing that King Shahryar does not question Shahrazad a little more closely about her seemingly wide knowledge of sexual practices. He is certainly curious to know more about them, but his is not worried about why she knows more than him.
This is not to say that King Shahryar is starting to mellow in this second volume. As the volume covers nights 170 to 487, this means that he has been married to Shahrazad for over five months at the beginning of the volume, and for well over a year at the end of the second instalment. It might have been thought that he would have learnt to love Shahrazad by now. Instead he continues to threaten to kill her if he does not like a story or if she cannot quickly think up another good one. If anything the threats are more frequent in this part of the book than they were in the first volume.
No wonder that even after all this time her poor father turns up every morning with her shroud. The remarkable thing is that Shahrazad continues to try so hard to stay alive and married to her tyrannical husband, but the will to live is apparently strong, and she continues to spin more stories to ensure her survival.
As in the first volume, these stories are astonishingly varied. The stories are generally of a fantastic nature, and many are romances. There is usually a happy ending, but not always. The final story about the enchanted bag ends with the murder of the hero by his two unworthy brothers. This is not the first story in which a man has had to support two treacherous siblings, and this shows the limitations of The Thousand Nights and One Night. Characters and events are interchangeable, and one character blends into another.
There are plenty of other diverse stories. Sympathy the Learned provides supposedly learned debates, some of them far more silly than the writer seems to think they are. There are a number of very short tales that make a quick point and then finish. Other tales rely on cynical and cruel comedy, such as the amusing con-tricks of Delilah-the-Wily and her daughter Zainab-the-Cheat.
The most famous tales in this volume however are those of Sinbad the Sailor, perhaps a late addition to the Arabian Nights, and not found in earlier versions. Sinbad went on to become the subject of many latr stories and movies, but the original Sinbad tales are again not suitable for children. Men are eaten alive, acts of cannibalism are performed, and even Sinbad is at one point forced to stay alive by murdering people when he is trapped in a pit.
Curiously he never defends his actions but simply states what he did for survival. As is always the case with fantasy, logic is not a strong point of these stories, and we may well ask why Sinbad keeps going back to sea when every voyage ends so appallingly.
The Thousand Nights and One Night is never subtle or clever, but the stories are imaginative and amusing, and there is much diversity in their content. They are rarely boring, and never for long.
April 11, 2024
This is the second volume of Mardrus and Mathers' translation of "One Thousand and One Nights".
Naturally, all of the issues that plagued the first volume are present here as well – like being extremely offensive for modern sensibilities and having quite a few typographical errors. However, the stories in this volume are better and more interesting than those in its predecessor.
Setting aside the boring and repetitive love stories (there’s always a pair of star-crossed lovers that get separated but manage to find each other in the end), there are some real jewels in this book.
I particularly enjoyed the stories about travels to fantastic lands, like “The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor” (truly a classic!), “The Tale of Yamlika” and “The Tale of Bulukiya”. Remarkably, there are a couple of proto-scifi stories in this volume: “The Extraordinary Tale of the City of Brass” and “The Magic Tale of the Ebony Horse”.
And I had a good laugh with the short tales in “The Flowering Terrace of Wit and Garden of Gallantry” and the exploits of the top scoundrels of Baghdad in “The Shifts of Delilah the Wily and her Daughter Zainab the Cheat”.
I’ll continue reading the remaining volumes in this collection, I can’t stop now and some of the stories are worth the time. Looking forward for the second half of the Arabian Nights!
Naturally, all of the issues that plagued the first volume are present here as well – like being extremely offensive for modern sensibilities and having quite a few typographical errors. However, the stories in this volume are better and more interesting than those in its predecessor.
Setting aside the boring and repetitive love stories (there’s always a pair of star-crossed lovers that get separated but manage to find each other in the end), there are some real jewels in this book.
I particularly enjoyed the stories about travels to fantastic lands, like “The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor” (truly a classic!), “The Tale of Yamlika” and “The Tale of Bulukiya”. Remarkably, there are a couple of proto-scifi stories in this volume: “The Extraordinary Tale of the City of Brass” and “The Magic Tale of the Ebony Horse”.
And I had a good laugh with the short tales in “The Flowering Terrace of Wit and Garden of Gallantry” and the exploits of the top scoundrels of Baghdad in “The Shifts of Delilah the Wily and her Daughter Zainab the Cheat”.
I’ll continue reading the remaining volumes in this collection, I can’t stop now and some of the stories are worth the time. Looking forward for the second half of the Arabian Nights!
July 9, 2021
Covering the gamut from comedy to romance, drama to intrigue, volume two continues with Shahrazad (Scheherezade) telling her tales night after night with a cliffhanger ending that keeps King Shahryar intrigued enough to spare her life.
Perhaps first told during the 7th to 10th centuries, they are a potent reminder that while the world around us may change, human nature is pretty much the same.
With stories that deal graphically with sex in its many forms: homosexuality, lesbianism, and bisexuality, it does make one wonder how the Islamic world eventually became so uptight concerning sex.
Still, it is a reflection of the middle-east during the middle ages, where despite the enormous intelligence of many of the women, in some cases with educations surpassing the most learned clerics, they are still bought, sold, and traded like chattel.
The differences in style between the various tales can sometimes be jarring, but it's still a brilliant compilation and translation.
Perhaps first told during the 7th to 10th centuries, they are a potent reminder that while the world around us may change, human nature is pretty much the same.
With stories that deal graphically with sex in its many forms: homosexuality, lesbianism, and bisexuality, it does make one wonder how the Islamic world eventually became so uptight concerning sex.
Still, it is a reflection of the middle-east during the middle ages, where despite the enormous intelligence of many of the women, in some cases with educations surpassing the most learned clerics, they are still bought, sold, and traded like chattel.
The differences in style between the various tales can sometimes be jarring, but it's still a brilliant compilation and translation.
June 24, 2022
I've read several reviews remarking that the stories get repetitive after a while, and they do. However, I've read so many versions of these stories that I have really been enjoying recognizing all of the differences between these versions and the other ones I've read, as well as noticing which stories sound most like Indian Folk Tales or Greco-Roman myths. If you love this type of narrative, it only gets more entertaining as you go forward. I'm now reading the 3rd book of the 4 book set and am finding it wonderful bedtime reading to chill out and stop thinking about the challenges of work and life at the end of the day.
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March 21, 2019It's the splendid example of human literature
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews