arabian nights

[Dave Monroe]

Strangely enough, an old online acquaintance e-mailed
me  I think this past New Year's day asking what I
knew about translations thereof.  Nothing, of course,
but floating the question here, elsewhere yielded ...

http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall95/031367.htm

http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall96/arabian.htm

"... the best current translation is that by Haddawy,
which is also published by Norton. Although the
Haddawy translation includes only a small portion of
the total stories sometimes found in editions of the
Nights, the translation is new, attractive, has a good
introduction, and avoids the ugly racism of the more
standard nineteenth century Richard Burton
translation. The Burton translation, although it
includes many more stories, is so marred by the racial
stereotyping in it, that I cannot recommend it. You
may, if you wish, read one of the editions translated
by Burton instead of the Haddawy version, but be
warned, it is indeed racist in its negative
stereotyped descriptions of black people."

http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/eng251/arabstudy.htm

The Burton trans. is all over this here Infonet, see
also maybe Penguin and Oxford eds.  But the Haddawy I
managed to find a copy of for a dollar at a library
resale shop (people hadn't been taking it out!),
excellent bathroom reading (which is NOT to denigrate
it, not in the least, we have a locally acclaimed
lavatory library, in fact, it's just eminently
episodic, is all; have also been perusing ...

http://www.bartleby.com/81/

... and an out[star]dated Star Trek chronology) ...

--- bob mccart <lebishar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Have any of you read the Arabian Nights tales? Would
> you recommend them or a class dedicated to them?
> Real literature? Infleunce on western literature,
> specifically the picaresque and brazen humor
> illistrated in not only Candide, but an american
> author as well--

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