"The Arabian Nights" has become a synonym for the fabulous and the exotic. Many people are familiar with the stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. Yet few people have a clear idea of when the book was written or what exactly it is. This companion seeks to remedy this.
Preface to the second edition Introduction I Beautiful Infidels II The Book Without Authors III Oceans of Stories IV The Storyteller's Craft V Street Entertainments VI Low Life VII Sexual Fictions VIII The Universe of Marvels IV Formal Readings X Children of the Nights Chronology Notes Index
Robert Irwin is a Research Associate at SOAS and the Middle East Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He has also written novels, often focusing on Arabic themes and the Arab world.
A generous and erudite book...We’re in the company of someone who
loves The Arabian Nights, and who has generously shared that love
with us through this companion.
*Independent on Sunday*
A work both learned and witty...Robert Irwin has wonderfully
deepened the pleasures and the interest in reading The Arabian
Nights as a supreme work of imaginative fiction.
*TLS*
Irwin organizes his material like a good storyteller...he gives us
the crystallized sum of The Nights: anecdote, history, moral fable,
aphorism, story after story, wonder upon wonder. This monumental,
infinitely faceted gem should be every writer's bedtime
sampler.
*New Statesman & Society*
Superlative...just the sort of relaxed, informative book that
Edmund Wilson might have written had he grown interested in the
Middle East and its early literature.
*Washington Post*
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