The Arabian Nights: A Companion

This excellent book by Robert Irwin is essential reading for anyone who really wants to understand "The Thousand Nights and One Night", also known as "The Arabian Nights", "The Arabian Tales", and "The 1,001 Nights". As you probably know, these famous stories were supposedly told by Scheherazade to King Shahriyar over the course of 1,001 nights. Scheherazade kept the King enthralled with cliffhanger endings each night, postponing his plans to execute her until he grew to love her and changed his mind. This book will do several things for readers interested in these stories.

First, the introduction and first chapter will help discerning readers decide which edition to read. That doesn't mean that you necessarily have to follow Irwin's recommendations, but you'll be able to make an informed decision. For instance, while he rightly criticizes the accuracy of the Mardrus/Mathers edition, that is the most readable "complete" version; I read it and enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to those who are more focused on reading something entertaining than on authenticity. But if you do read Mardrus/Mathers, you'll know it's only a loose adaptation of the original Arabic sources. This brings up another point which Irwin makes, which is that there is no authentic version even in Arabic; in reality there are multiple Arabic editions in which different stories occur in different versions.

The book will also give readers a much better understanding of the stories themselves and the cultures from which they originated. Note that more than one culture was involved since there are Indian, Persian, Syrian, and Egyptian sources. Irwin focuses on the ways in which the stories were orally transmitted in Arab societies and provides details about how this shaped the stories to attract listeners. This helps readers understand why the stories are filled with religion, poetry, epic tales, love stories, aphorisms, jokes, magic, fantasy, sexuality, criminals, and assorted other features.

Finally, Irwin provides literary analysis of the stories and connects them to story collections and other fiction in other cultures, Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. This includes influences on Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", Boccaccio's "Decameron", Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", western fairy tales, William Beckford's gothic novel "Vathek", "The Saragossa Manuscript" by Jean Potocki, and Robert Louis Stevenson's "New Arabian Nights" before the 20th century. Influences in modern literature can be found in "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce, the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, the works of John Barth, and the novels of Salman Rushdie.

I highly recommend this book to all of you who love the fantastic world of the Arabian Nights and would like to learn more about the origins and influences of these wonderful stories.

The best companion to one of the most fascinating collection of tales in history. Irwin's work is also a great socio-political study of both the times that The Arabian Nights was written in and the times that it was finally translated into the west. If you have the The Arabian Nights and this book then I highly recommend Irwin's other book, Night & Horses & the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, and Edward Said's Orientalism.

This is one of the more interesting companion books I have read. It goes into great detail of the history and the formation of the 1001 Nights collection, and provides an interesting window into Arabic culture. However, one thing I found to be really interesting is that the 1001 tales of Arabic culture were primarily oral tales. The professional storytellers who would tell these books would have manuscript versions which they would use as notes, so there were no official versions--each telling would be elaborated and expanded on depending on the audience. The version that we are familiar with in the west was formalized in France in the 17th century, and may have more relevance to the European expectations of Arabic culture than to Arabic culture itself. In fact, several tales which appear in the European version do not appear in any Arabic manuscripts and may have been written by Europeans to fill the demand for fantastic tales. Overall, this book is quite interesting and I really recommend this to those who would like to see how a lose collection of oral tales becomes a work of literature.

The history of the Arabian Nights (1001 Nights) is often appended to the various translations available. They tend to be brief and often reflect the focus of the editor and/or translator. The Arabian Nights: A Companion by Robert Irwin is very substantial. The author often makes conclusions but always includes the thoughts of those with whom he disagrees. This is a must for anyone who really enjoys this collection of stories and will be rewarded by its fascinating history and the history of its translation...almost as enjoyable as the stories themselves.

As someone who loved the "Arabian Nights" since childhood, I eagerly read this book as well. For the most part, I wasn't disapointed. It does a wonderful job of setting the scene, discussing its origins, its distortions, and showing how the stories relate to medieval Arabian life. I was particularly impressed with the section discussing the connections between various story collections in both Asia and Europe. In short, this book helps the reader better understand this complex (and often confusing)work. The chapters are all clearly laid out and well argued, and the book as a whole is easy to read. He has complex ideas, but is able to communicate them fluidly.

One idea I would challenge, however. I believe the scholars who argue that the more "complete" manuscripts probably arose from increased European interest in it. It makes sense that writers would add filler to reach 1001 nights in response to consumer demand.

An interesting read for fans of "Arabian Nights."