elleisliving's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
tiggum's review against another edition
2.0
Started this ages ago and just got around to finishing it. It gets pretty samey as you go through it, particularly in terms of characters. There's really not a lot of depth to them - basically you've got the good protagonist who does the right thing and is tricked, the bad protagonist who does the wrong thing and gets his comeuppance (but then usually gets rewarded in the end anyway), the good woman who goes out of her way to help the protagonist, the bad woman who goes out of her way to harm the protagonist, the good man who rewards the protagonist for basically no reason and the bad man who punishes the protagonist for basically no reason. That's pretty much everyone. The stories themselves are a little more varied but not by a lot.
emilycait's review against another edition
1.0
I had to read this for a course I'm TAing. Very sexist, very racist. Just all the problems. But also maybe some cool ideas around female sexual desire? Curious to see what gets said about this in lecture.
garnergraham's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great collection that makes for a good bedside book. You can read a tale or more each night before bed. Fun, digestable and enlightening (in a literary sense) tales.
otterno11's review against another edition
3.0
I have always enjoyed folklore, so for a long time I have been wanting to read the Arabian Nights, one of the most famous collections of folklore. In addition to the famous fairy tales such as Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad, it also contains parables, legends, and other folkloric narratives, each offering much insight into the culture of the Medieval Arabic, Persian, and Indian societies from which the stories originated. It was easy to see, even through the modern English translation that these stories were originally oral tales, particularly in their prominent usage of framing stories within stories, present throughout in the form of Scheherazade's "1001" nights of storytelling, which binds the collection together. I felt that the framing of the narrative made an interesting setting for stories, but as some of them go on for hundreds of pages, it can be easy to lose track of the tales.
Also, "unexpurgated" medieval literature as it is, I had to admit I was still surprised at the amount of sexism and racism the stories contained, especially in regards to the roles of women. However, stories often differed in their particular takes on many themes, including that of female power, perhaps again showing that these stories came from different times and places, written down anywhere between the 9th and 14th centuries before being combined as a single text. In all, these stories provide a very interesting view into the religion, beliefs, and society of the writers, and I'm glad that I read it.
Also, "unexpurgated" medieval literature as it is, I had to admit I was still surprised at the amount of sexism and racism the stories contained, especially in regards to the roles of women. However, stories often differed in their particular takes on many themes, including that of female power, perhaps again showing that these stories came from different times and places, written down anywhere between the 9th and 14th centuries before being combined as a single text. In all, these stories provide a very interesting view into the religion, beliefs, and society of the writers, and I'm glad that I read it.
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