The Arabian Nights (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics)

Beautiful binding, tons of typos

All the effort went into creating a visually stunning book. The cover, the illustrations, even the page numbers are beautiful. If only they had bothered to check the gally proofs for typos!

10 out of 17 people found this review helpful.

Magnificent!!!

This story has been one of my favorites since I was a young child. My grandmother read the stories to me and I always found them facisnating. Now I am doing the same for my granddaughter, for whom I purchased this particular book as a Christmas gift. She is 10 years old and in 4th grade, and this book is just a tad difficult to read at that age; however, she is an extremely good reader, reading already at junior high level and I now she will love and enjoy this book just as much as I did at her age. I bought 2 of them; one for her and one for me, as I like to read and re-read the stories of Sheherezade, and in this way we keep books both in her house and my house, so when she visits we can read it together. Now she can read to me.

This particular edition is bound in beautiful rich-colored bonded leather, with gold writing and it's great to hold and feel its high quality. The thin, beautiful, parchment-like paper of its pages are also great and remind the reader of very old, very high quality books from Europe. I grew up in Europe and remember books looking and smelling like this one. The translation of Sir Richard Burton is a great edition of a fabulous book that has fascinated and enthralled many people through the ages. This book is fantastic!

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Excellent text, beautiful copy

One Thousand and One Nights is most definitely a required read for anyone who loves literature. The poetic style incorporated by the various authors adds not only detail, but interest to the tales.

Almost everyone is familiar with Aladdin, Sinbad, and Ali Baba, but there are other great tales such as the story of Prince Behram and Princess al-Datma (which has an excellent spin on the 'battle of the sexes' concept--though this story is not for feminists or people easily offended), the Genie bartering for a man's life by listening to tales, which reflects the greatness of this book--it's a tale within a tale (Princess Shahrazad entertaining King Shahryar in order to survive). The genie story is even more in-depth, whereby the princess is telling the story of a genie who is listening to stories by people trying to save a cursed man's life, which reflects the princess trying to save her own life! It's complex, but fascinating.

The book is beautiful, and the coloring chosen was perfect, as blues, golds, and turquoise are the divine colors within Islam. One issue with an above review I have is that I am a Humanities professor, and scholars do not believe that it "contains some of the oldest stories ever told" nor that it is "considered the first book ever written." True, it is a compilation of centuries-old Islamic, Persian, and Arabic tales, but many of them are based on much older Egyptian and Greek myths, and the stories were not put together until between the 10th-15th centuries. The Iliad and Odyssey are much older, and the Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest 'book' ever written. Just thought it was important to clear up any confusion. But in terms of the book, it's a must-read, and this edition is excellent.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Gorgeous

I showed this book to my grandmother (She was an English teacher and has a veryexpansive library filled with collectible books) and was very pleased to have her approval. Many scholers believe The Arabian Nights (originally published One Thousand One Nights) to contain some of the oldest stories ever told. By many, it is considered the first book ever written. This edition is a little flamboyantly presented, but does contain beautiful illustrations. It is said that all stories somehow find their root in One Thousand One Nights. However, many stories have been taken out and added through the years with some edtions containing more and some less than "one thousand nights." For this reason, you would be very hardpressed to ever find two identical compilations.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

extremely difficult to navigate

This is an all around terrible format for the nook... it's hard to go from story to story

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An excellent edition and great for gift giving!

This is a choice of Tales from the Arabian Nights in the Burton translation (not easy to read, but one gets accustomed to it with time). However, the choice of tales in this gorgeous, heirloom style edition is based on the very first European translation -- the Galland version... So by reading this edition, you are actually killing two birds with one stone -- the Burton text and the Galland contents!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful Book, but not for beginners

I am still currently reading this book, but love it anyways!! It's hard to read quickly because it uses old English and is written passively most of the time. This means it should be limited to more advanced readers. Also, many of the stories have similar story lines - such as they go do something and they're gone for seven years, then another five, then another three, etc. Also, I would like to point out that these leather bound classics tend to be recreations of older versions of books. So typos, formatting errors, and spelling errors should generally be attributed to the older version. (Note: this is not always true)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lovely- A story within stories of stories.

Im still young, the novel contains some old english, but after a whlie you get used to it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful book but...

This is such a beautiful book, I grew up reading these stories and it was wonderful to find the leatherbound version.
I do have a big issue with it... I am not understanding why is it called Arabian Nights, Shahrazad was in fact Persian. The original title was 1001 Nights so I am not sure why the translator chose to change it to an incorrect one.
I have Iranian friends (Persians) who were pretty offended that such an important piece of Persian fiction is atributed in the title to... a different people.
Overall, good read, beautiful binding.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

TALES To Escape Death

Arabian Nights is a collection of stories-short stories of sort-that was told to a King in the East so the storyteller can escape or prolong death which was actually a punishment for a misdeed done. These stories were told at night tot he king, thus, Arabian nights. The storyteller ends everytime morning came and the king, went to bed.
These stories are a mammoth of events that happened in the Middle East some years back. They are magical and fairy tale like. I have not read these stories seriously before, until lately when I got a god copy of the book in electronic form. My favorite is Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the grandest of them all. I also like The Flying Carpet. For those who like a glimpse of Middle eastern culture and literature, these stories is the best!!!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Poorly Formatted

This version of the classic collection of stories is a big old mess. It is basically a solid block of text. There aren't any meaningful divisions between stories at all, and it's a monster pain in the rear to read. I am looking for another version now, as this one is intensely unreadable.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Arabian Nights

I have read thousands of books, and this is one of the most sumptuous books I have ever laid hands on! Elegantly, beautifully designed and richly illustrated, it has the classic tales that people love: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,The Tale of Scheherazade... This is not a book recommended for children, rather it is a keepsake book, one you put in a special place and handle with care, a book you would hand down to your children only when they become adults. The stories are a fun read, full of rich detail and exotic locales.The Arabian Knights immediately draws you in and keeps you fully engaged in the stories from the first page to the last. A definite recommend!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

burton does a great job in interpreting the classic tale

This is great tale that broadens your veiw of the large world that we live in. It gives you a cultural idea of how the eastern people communicated and lived through their story telling.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I picked this up at a Barnes & Noble retail store and have j

I picked this up at a Barnes & Noble retail store and have just loved it. Each night is a journey into another time and another world, but, alas, I won't get 1,001 nights out of it. Gorgeous binding, gilt-edged pages, and very solid: I expect it to last several lifetimes (uh, not all of them mine).

Complete

15331 pages. Hav not read yet, but am glad that I bought the complete version rather than a selection.

Stunning...Absolutely stunning

I just received this today and I almost cried at the incredible beauty of this book. When I first opened the cover, already I was mystified by the illustrations. It's a highly mesmerizing book with stories that still delights readers to this day.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

To all Classic Readers

This item arrived exactly on the date it was expected. Cover is beautiful and pictures are vivid.

Very Attractive

When I first saw this book and its brothers, I fell in love. The cover, the internal illustrations, the stories, all worth the money.

The actual text of the stories is written in high literary language, such as "Quoth Scheherazade that night, "It hath come to me, O auspicious King, that..."" which makes it a difficult read, but boy is it worth it!

I'd say that this book is good for anyone with a 10th grade reading level and above, with an exception for the advanced readers out there.

I highly recommend this, as well as all the others in this Leatherbound Classics series!

Rarely do you see these classic pieces of literature rendered with such sophisticated elegance and beauty, faithfully honoring and respecting the equally unique, creative literary material loved by generations of readers. I have been enjoying them all, and eagerly look forward to each new addition to the series.

Hopefully, the publisher (who appears to be unreachable) will keep releasing more of these fine collected works, including such classic writers as Baum, Milne, Kipling, Twain, London, Melville, Hemingway, Stoker, Shelley, as well as other poets like Virgil, Longfellow, Keats, Eliot, Hawthorne, and Blake.

Time will tell, but hope is alive. Get on board with these fantastic masterpieces of literature, and be swept away in worlds of imagination!

Wow

I think this book is beautiful, but my copy had a ton of gold dust on top. I had golden dust EVERYWHERE when I tried to read it. The writing is small and hard to understand. It reminds me of reading the bible, haha.

I'm still glad I got this for Christmas, but I won't be reading it very often.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.