Arabian Nights

Rating:
Summary: An amazing and entertaining book
Review: "'What an amazing and entertaining story!' said Dinarzad, the sister of queen Shahrazad. And she would reply, 'What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive.'" This dialogue ends every night of "the nights" and makes us all to wander and expect what will happen the next night. While anticipating the next night, the readers' hearts and minds goes ups and downs with the book. The Stories of "The Arabian Nights", or "The One Thousand and One Nights," are very entertaining and strange. It makes you turn those pages to find out what will happen and you will discover those stories (and stories within the stories within the stories within the stories), you never dreamed of, which made you finish the book fast and delighted.
Although I expected to read the story like "the story of Sindbad," and "the story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp," which are explained by the introduction, is later addition to fulfill the name of the "one thousand" nights, I really enjoy this translation of the oldest version of the Nights. The translator, Husain Haddawy, even made this book more familiar to us. He changes "Allah" to "God," and such. This book about four hundred more pages will bring you a lot fun time while you read it. I highly recommend you to read this version of "The Arabian Nights."

Rating:
Summary: An amazing and entertaining book
Review: "`What an amazing and entertaining story!' said Dinarzad, the sister of queen Shahrazad. And she would reply, `What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive.'" This dialogue ends every night of "the nights" and makes us all to wander and expect what will happen the next night. While anticipating the next night, the readers' hearts and minds goes ups and downs with the book. The Stories of "The Arabian Nights", or "The One Thousand and One Nights," are very entertaining and strange. It makes you turn those pages to find out what will happen and you will discover those stories (and stories within the stories within the stories within the stories), you never dreamed of, which made you finish the book fast and delighted.
Although I expected to read the story like "the story of Sindbad," and "the story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp," which are explained by the introduction, is later addition to fulfill the name of the "one thousand" nights, I really enjoy this translation of the oldest version of the Nights. The translator, Husain Haddawy, even made this book more familiar to us. He changes "Allah" to "God," and such. This book about four hundred more pages will bring you a lot fun time while you read it. I highly recommend you to read this version of "The Arabian Nights."

Rating:
Summary: Aladdin's Lamp
Review: Arabian Nights was a very good book for short story lovers like me. Arabian Nights is a book about a young king who's wife cheats on him, so he decides to marry a girl than kills her the next morning. The royal adviser is asked to find the maiden he is to marry each night. his daughter decides to try to save the villages girls by offering herself to marry the king, for she had a plan to keep him from killing her in the morning.

Rating:
Summary: Accept no substitutes
Review: At last, an authentic, unexpurgated version of the 1001 Nights. The stories are charming, often bawdy, and astonishingly inventive. Haddawy provides an excellent introduction which explains just how bad previous versions were, and his translation is unfussy and moves along beautifully. I loved it!

Rating:
Summary: Engaging
Review: Feigned as innocent and child-friendly by Disney, the book is a complete antipode of what it is has come to be popularly believed. The fairy tales are absolutely charming and the adventures enthralling as they swarm with magic and adventure, and...quite a few obscenities. This however does not diminish the value of this marvellous book and an equally marvellous translation, but does taint it's reputation. But it would be truly foolish to let a few subtle obscenities deter one from engaging in the wondrously spun tales of Shahrazad. Also, I would highly recommend the second book of the Arabian Nights with the famous adventures of Sindbad and Ala-Al-Din and the magic lamp.

Rating:
Summary: Fanatstic stories in the realm of the arabian nights!
Review: Forget Disney and any other version Alladin; this is the real deal. The stories are filled with allot more blodshed and even has some sex in it which I must admit was very surprising. This book should be required reading since it teaches people about morality and ethics from another civilizations perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Shahrazad would like it....
Review: Haddawy's translation is amazing. His straightforward approach--unlike Burton's, or probably any other English translation--shows in contrast what was missing from earlier versions, and how a florid, 'literary' approach can obscure the brilliance of the stories themselves. His approach is direct; much of the poetry is complete, and he has tried to capture the differing tones of the stories (which belie their insertion at different periods in the Nights' history). A remarkable work, and probably the one against all subsequent translations will be held.

Rating:
Summary: I would give it 6 Stars if I could
Review: Haddawy's translation of Alf Layla wa Layla or Hazaar Afsana is the most authentic one yet. It benefits enormously from his dual background of having an Arab heritage and an English education. He has managed to distill the very essence of the Arab language and put it in English in as much as it is possible.

The poems, verses and sayings are pure magic. I had never imagined that beauty and handsomeness could be described so eloquently and in so many different ways. The imagery is fantastic. The stories themselves are masterfully woven together in a great tapestry of humans, demons, magic, wine, curiosiy and above all suspense. This is a great piece of work and can stand confidently among classics like Shakespeare, Shaw, Austen, Thackeray or Alcott.

Like everyone else, I had known some of the stories since childhood. I just never realized until now just how many there were, and how beautiful.

I recommend this book to every adult who has once been a child.

Rating:
Summary: Best version of the "Nights" -- hands down!
Review: I have loved the Arabian Nights since I was a kid. But its fame as a "children's book" has often been a disadvantage -- most editions are simplified, hobbled and sanitized. The unedited versions geared more for adults are a hundred years old, and often show their age. Burton, for example, is an impressive edition but the language is almost a parody of High Victorian English. This edition by Haddawy is almost as perfect as it could possibly be. First, the introduction is wonderful and definately worth reading on its own -- how many times can you say *that* about a book? It sets the stage for understanding the work, the problems in translating it, and the world the Nights came from. It is clearly, smoothly written. These strengths are carried over to the main text as well. The writing is so direct, modern, vivid, and thrilling! It effortlessly takes you into this vanished world of danger, love, magic and adventure. Many expressions are modernized, such as "demon" for "genie" or "God" for "Allah," which work well, although I wouldn't have minded the the more "romantic" terms. Haddawy explains his choice of stories... the full original text only contains about 300 nights worth of tales. Most of the famous stories were added later (Aladdin, Sindbad, etc.) in response to greater interest in the work. Readers looking for these stories should check out Haddawy's companion volume, "Arabian Nights II," which has these famous stories and shares almost all the virtues of this volume. Finally, these books are wonderfully put together: great paper, type, binding... very satisfying just as a physical form. For those who loved these stories, or anyone with a sense of adventure, buy this! Buy it now!

Rating:
Summary: Best version of the "Nights" -- hands down!
Review: I have loved the Arabian Nights since I was a kid. But its fame as a "children's book" has often been a disadvantage -- most editions are simplified, hobbled and sanitized. The unedited versions geared more for adults are a hundred years old, and often show their age. Burton, for example, is an impressive edition but the language is almost a parody of High Victorian English. This edition by Haddawy is almost as perfect as it could possibly be. First, the introduction is wonderful and definately worth reading on its own -- how many times can you say *that* about a book? It sets the stage for understanding the work, the problems in translating it, and the world the Nights came from. It is clearly, smoothly written. These strengths are carried over to the main text as well. The writing is so direct, modern, vivid, and thrilling! It effortlessly takes you into this vanished world of danger, love, magic and adventure. Many expressions are modernized, such as "demon" for "genie" or "God" for "Allah," which work well, although I wouldn't have minded the the more "romantic" terms. Haddawy explains his choice of stories... the full original text only contains about 300 nights worth of tales. Most of the famous stories were added later (Aladdin, Sindbad, etc.) in response to greater interest in the work. Readers looking for these stories should check out Haddawy's companion volume, "Arabian Nights II," which has these famous stories and shares almost all the virtues of this volume. Finally, these books are wonderfully put together: great paper, type, binding... very satisfying just as a physical form. For those who loved these stories, or anyone with a sense of adventure, buy this! Buy it now!