The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla Wa-Layla) (2 Vols.) : Eb the Classic Edition by Muhsin S. Mahdi (1984-1994) with a New Introduction by Aboubakr Chraïbi (Paperback)

from jawalter

While I can't comment on the quality of the translation, The Arabian Nights is a dizzying array of stories within stories within stories, playing with the idea that our narrative impulse is the connective tissue that makes civilization possible. The stories are at their best when they fully indul...

from Stbalbach

This review is of the Everyman's Library Haddawy translation. This is the original "Arabian Nights", a collection of stories from Persia from the 7th century to the 13th century. Haddawy's translation is considered the modern definitive, going back to the original sources and removing the stories...

from rwturner

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. The stories are constantly fresh and interesting, and I also found it pretty remarkable how sophisticated the storytelling is. A lot of narrative trickery keeps the constant flow of plot entertaining and new; this is nothing like reading a stale collec...

from tungsten_peerts

This is as good as it gets. I don't know Arabic so there's no way I can judge the accuracy of the translation -- all I know is how it reads, and it reads superbly. I'd rather not get into any "oh, but there's only 271 nights here, what the --" patter. I have the newer, bigger Penguin translation ...

from CassandraStrand

The Haddawy translation of the Nights is by far my favorite. It doesn't have every possible story (although many more are covered in the second volume) and it's not a huge 19 volume set or anything but the translation is so readable and enjoyable. The poetry is translated well and in most cases a...