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penguin_emperor_of_the_north's review against another edition
3.0
You probably know the story. The king's wife cheats on him so he kills her then decides to marry a new girl every night, kill her in the morning so she can't cheat on him, marry a new girl that night and so on and so forth. Until Scheherazade volunteers to marry him (for his personality, I imagine) and entrances him every night with her story telling so that he'll spare her to hear more stories the next night until he decides to give up the whole murdering girls thing and settles down with Scheherazade (I don't know why this isn't in the romance section of the bookstore).
The table of contents lists 19 stories but there's more than that, there are stories nested inside of stories. Sometimes so deep that I forgot what was going on in the framing story.
And the book was certainly not written by anyone too concerned with intercultural sensitivity. Generally speaking, if a black person shows up they're a slave, cannibal or other unsavory character. One story involves a Jew being murdered by his daughter for not converting to Islam and it's not even the focus of the story, just a random aside. The one time Christians are mentioned it's to say that the king of the Christians spends his days asking random people to assassinate the Sultan.
And some of the protagonists are psychos. The last two stories in particular are about the main characters committing a series of crimes for personal gain or just for the hell of it.
None of the above is really a criticism just remarking. Considering the age of these stories, I'd not feel comfortable criticizing them for not measuring up to 21st century standards.
The table of contents lists 19 stories but there's more than that, there are stories nested inside of stories. Sometimes so deep that I forgot what was going on in the framing story.
And the book was certainly not written by anyone too concerned with intercultural sensitivity. Generally speaking, if a black person shows up they're a slave, cannibal or other unsavory character. One story involves a Jew being murdered by his daughter for not converting to Islam and it's not even the focus of the story, just a random aside. The one time Christians are mentioned it's to say that the king of the Christians spends his days asking random people to assassinate the Sultan.
And some of the protagonists are psychos. The last two stories in particular are about the main characters committing a series of crimes for personal gain or just for the hell of it.
None of the above is really a criticism just remarking. Considering the age of these stories, I'd not feel comfortable criticizing them for not measuring up to 21st century standards.
thaurisil's review against another edition
2.0
This is a book full of magicians, princes and princesses, genies, sultans and vizirs, dervishes, and all sorts of people living in the ancient Middle East. Many of the stories are set in Bagdad, under the reign of the Caliph Haroun al-Raschid, Commander of the Faithful, but others are set in Persia, India or even China. The premise is that Scheherazade, the intelligent and beautiful daughter of the grand-vizir, requests to be married to the Sultan Schahriar of Persia, who has married and killed a wife every day since his first beloved wife "deceived him completely". She then tells a story every night and ends it on a cliffhanger, so that the Sultan is forced to postpone her execution to the next night to hear the next part of the story.
Given such an exciting backdrop, why did I dislike the book? At first I could see no real reason. The stories were all fairly exciting, many perhaps rather similar, but in general filled with enough action and trickery to captivate. But I quickly realised it was the story-telling that was the problem. The stories were so badly told, with many loopholes and gaps in the story, many things left unexplained for the reader to accept, and even several typos. The story of a hunchback who was killed ends with "The Sultan asked everybody concerned in the hunchback's affair to tell him their stories. Among others was a prating barber, whose tale of one of his brothers follows." The book then jumps into the story of the barber's fifth brother. Yet how is the hunchback related to the barber? This is never explained.
I read Andrew Lang's abridged version, perhaps I will read the full 1001 nights version in future in its full glory. Related by a different and hopefully better story-teller, the tales which have captured imaginations for centuries might capture mine as well.
Given such an exciting backdrop, why did I dislike the book? At first I could see no real reason. The stories were all fairly exciting, many perhaps rather similar, but in general filled with enough action and trickery to captivate. But I quickly realised it was the story-telling that was the problem. The stories were so badly told, with many loopholes and gaps in the story, many things left unexplained for the reader to accept, and even several typos. The story of a hunchback who was killed ends with "The Sultan asked everybody concerned in the hunchback's affair to tell him their stories. Among others was a prating barber, whose tale of one of his brothers follows." The book then jumps into the story of the barber's fifth brother. Yet how is the hunchback related to the barber? This is never explained.
I read Andrew Lang's abridged version, perhaps I will read the full 1001 nights version in future in its full glory. Related by a different and hopefully better story-teller, the tales which have captured imaginations for centuries might capture mine as well.
tmsiu's review against another edition
4.0
Gorgeous edition, but the editor's commentary is not as relevant as I'd hoped it would be.
mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. There is a reason we only know the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin, maybe Sinbad. All the others are magical, mystical, but also sort of the same lessons to be learned. I just got bored of all the magical birds and flawless morality.
neuromantic86's review against another edition
I couldn't stand the way women are treated and murdered like they are dispensable
witchnova's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
michelebooks's review against another edition
The stories here are lovely however, every villian was described as having black skin. After a while, I just couldn't take it so I abandoned reading it.
mastersal's review against another edition
5.0
These stories are a pillar of my childhood so finally invested in getting a fancy copy for my house. Hopefully this is a nice version
d_clemente's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5