shuju@videovax.UUCP (Shuju Burgess) (11/19/85)
My favorite book when I was little was '1001 Arabin Nights'. I read it
so many times the front and back covers came off, but that was ok.
Pretty soon the pages at the top and bottem started to fall off, but that
was ok too, as I had the stories pretty much memorized anyhow, so I just
made up for the missing pages myself. But before long, the whole book
fell apart and I finally gave up reading it. Ever since then, I have
been on the look out for another copy (in English, my first copy was in
Chinese). My first copy was about 300-400 pages and was in fine print.
I have not seen another version which has the complete stories as I remembered.
Does anyone out there know if a complete version is still in print? Where
can I find it? How about the publisher and title? If you know of different
versions for adults and children(ie, more illustrations) I would like to know
both. It's a wonderful gift for kids! Send me mail or postnews and
thanks (this will be much appreciated).
Shu-Ju {decvax, ihnp4, allegra, uw-beaver, ucbvax...}!tektronix!videovax!shuju
ps. I did look for the Chinese version, but was not successful. If you
know of one, I would like to have the above information too. Thanks.tim@k.cs.cmu.edu (Tim Maroney) (11/23/85)
If it was only about 400 pages, then it was not a complete edition of the
"Arabian Nights" (or "Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah", the "Thousand Nights and a
Night"). Rather, it was one of the many heavily edited and abridged
versions that bedevil the market.
To the best of my knowledge, the only complete "Arabian Nights" in English
is Sir Richard Burton's translation last century. This is some twelve
volumes of small print and multi-page paragraphs. Burton's prose is
beautiful, as always, but the sheer length of the thing makes it rough
going. One of the greatest features of the Nights is the story nesting.
Scherezade will be telling a story about, for example, a merchant who digs
up a Djinn bottle at the seashore, and once he manages to trick the Djinn,
the merchant will tell the Djinn a story that explains his defeat, in which
there is a character who tells a story... until it can be rather difficult
to keep all the levels of nesting in mind at once. This is great for a
fully-formed adult intellect, but I think most kids would have a lot of
trouble with it.
The stories are often fairly racy as well, although there is none of this
grotesque twentieth-century description of every gesture and moan. (R.
Crumb once parodied this style of "erotica" with "Food Comics", where a
family sits around the table and does nothing but eats food, the dialogue
consisting exclusively of "Boy, this sure is good eatin'!" and the like.) I
think most parents would object to their children reading it for this
reason, though I don't think exposure to mature sexuality hurts children
myself. (Rather the opposite, in fact.) However, the length and complexity
of the "Nights" does make it adult reading.
I got my copy at a bookstore in North Carolina some six years ago, but I
haven't seen it in a bookstore before or since. I have also seen it
advertised in those publisher's overstock catalogs that some sleazy outfit
sends through the mails. Apparently the set was reprinted by a "Burton
Appreciation Society" sometime earlier this century, and most copies have
been sitting in warehouses ever since. Your best bet is to find a local
bookstore that has a "Book Search Service", or a store that specializes in
overstock. Be prepared to pay between $75 and $150, though; and don't try
to carry it home on the bus!
-=-
Tim Maroney, Professional Heretic, CMU Center for Art and Technology
tim@k.cs.cmu.edu | uucp: {seismo,decwrl,ucbvax,etc.}!k.cs.cmu.edu!tim
CompuServe: 74176,1360 | God is not dead; he just smells funny.wsh@mtung.UUCP (Willie Heck) (11/26/85)
> > My favorite book when I was little was '1001 Arabin Nights'. I read it > so many times the front and back covers came off, but that was ok. > Pretty soon the pages at the top and bottem started to fall off, but that > was ok too, as I had the stories pretty much memorized anyhow, so I just > made up for the missing pages myself. But before long, the whole book > fell apart and I finally gave up reading it. Ever since then, I have > been on the look out for another copy (in English, my first copy was in > Chinese). My first copy was about 300-400 pages and was in fine print. > I have not seen another version which has the complete stories as I remembered. > Does anyone out there know if a complete version is still in print? Where > can I find it? How about the publisher and title? If you know of different > versions for adults and children(ie, more illustrations) I would like to know > both. It's a wonderful gift for kids! Send me mail or postnews and > thanks (this will be much appreciated). > > Shu-Ju {decvax, ihnp4, allegra, uw-beaver, ucbvax...}!tektronix!videovax!shuju > > ps. I did look for the Chinese version, but was not successful. If you > know of one, I would like to have the above information too. Thanks. Jonathan Clark, in a later posting, mentioned the translation by Sir Richard F. Burton. Burton was a 19th-century explorer and scholar; he was the first European to follow the Nile to its source, and supposedly the first European to make the pilgrimage to Mecca (fluent in Arabic, he was able to disguise himself as an Arab; he recounts the expedition in "An Account of a Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Mecca," reprinted by Dover and one of the greatest travel books ever written). His translation of the Arabian Nights is massive and scholarly, while at the same time preserving the, shall we say, earthy tone of the original; it was offered by Publishers Central Bureau (the mail-order remainder outfit) a few years ago in a 16-volume set for $60 (the frontispiece says it is a private printing for the Burton Society). It is definitely NOT bowdlerized. willie heck mtung!wsh
tim@k.cs.cmu.edu (Tim Maroney) (11/27/85)
(Sorry for the reposting, but this didn't seem to have gotten out. I think
the network is beginning to enter its self-destruct sequence....)
If it was only about 400 pages, then it was not a complete edition of the
"Arabian Nights" (or "Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah", the "Thousand Nights and a
Night"). Rather, it was one of the many heavily edited and abridged
versions that bedevil the market.
To the best of my knowledge, the only complete "Arabian Nights" in English
is Sir Richard Burton's translation last century. This is some twelve
volumes of small print and multi-page paragraphs. Burton's prose is
beautiful, as always, but the sheer length of the thing makes it rough
going. One of the greatest features of the Nights is the story nesting.
Scherezade will be telling a story about, for example, a merchant who digs
up a Djinn bottle at the seashore, and once he manages to trick the Djinn,
the merchant will tell the Djinn a story that explains his defeat, in which
there is a character who tells a story... until it can be rather difficult
to keep all the levels of nesting in mind at once. This is great for a
fully-formed adult intellect, but I think most kids would have a lot of
trouble with it.
The stories are often fairly racy as well, although there is none of this
grotesque twentieth-century description of every gesture and moan. (R.
Crumb once parodied this style of "erotica" with "Food Comics", where a
family sits around the table and does nothing but eats food, the dialogue
consisting exclusively of "Boy, this sure is good eatin'!" and the like.) I
think most parents would object to their children reading it for this
reason, though I don't think exposure to mature sexuality hurts children
myself. (Rather the opposite, in fact.) However, the length and complexity
of the "Nights" does make it adult reading.
I got my copy at a bookstore in North Carolina some six years ago, but I
haven't seen it in a bookstore before or since. I have also seen it
advertised in those publisher's overstock catalogs that some sleazy outfit
sends through the mails. Apparently the set was reprinted by a "Burton
Appreciation Society" sometime earlier this century, and most copies have
been sitting in warehouses ever since. Your best bet is to find a local
bookstore that has a "Book Search Service", or a store that specializes in
overstock. Be prepared to pay between $75 and $150, though; and don't try
to carry it home on the bus!
By the way, to the extent that I can be said to have any heroes, Sir Richard
Burton, the greatest adventurer of modern times, is one of the greatest of
my heroes. In fact, his was the name under which I was confirmed as a
member of the Gnostic Catholic Church.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Electronic Village Idiot, CMU Center for Art and Technology
tim@k.cs.cmu.edu | uucp: {seismo,decwrl,ucbvax,etc.}!k.cs.cmu.edu!tim
CompuServe: 74176,1360 | CMU. Tomorrow's networking nightmares -- today!