The Arabian Nights
The Arabian Nights by Muhsin Mahdi is a comprehensive edition published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2010, featuring 523 pages in English. This edition presents a collection of tales that have captivated audiences for centuries, alongside a preface, a note on the text, and explanatory annotations that enhance the reader’s understanding of this classic work. The book also includes “Contexts,” which offers three of the oldest Arabic witnesses to the tales, making them accessible in English for the first time.
Readers will find a rich exploration of the central themes of The Arabian Nights through eleven essays by notable writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, providing critical insights into the narratives. Additionally, the edition features a Chronology of The Arabian Nights and a Selected Bibliography, which serve as valuable resources for those interested in literary criticism and the historical context of this Middle Eastern classic. This first edition is designed for both casual readers and scholars alike, making it a significant contribution to the study of literature.
Official synopsis Publisher
Few works of literature are as familiar and beloved as The Arabian Nights. Yet few remain also as unknown. In English, The Arabian Nights is a literary work of relatively recent date—the first versions of the tales appeared in English barely two hundred years ago. The tales are accompanied by a preface, a note on the text, and explanatory annotations.
“Contexts” presents three of the oldest witnesses to The Arabian Nights in the Arabic tradition, together in English for the first time: an anonymous ninth-century fragment, Al Mas’udi’s Muruj al-Dhahab, and Ibn al-Nadim’s The Fihrist. Also included are three related works by the nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers Edgar Allan Poe, Marcel Proust, and Taha Husayn.
“Criticism” collects eleven wide-ranging essays on The Arabian Nights’ central themes by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Josef Horovitz, Jorge Luis Borges, Francesco Gabrieli, Mia Irene Gerhardt, Tzvetan Todorov, Andras Hamori, Heinz Grotzfield, Jerome W. Clinton, Abdelfattah Kilito, and David Pinault.
A Chronology of The Arabian Nights and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
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