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- Ultimate Fairy Tales
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- Adventure & more!
- You Won't Find Fairytales Any Better
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One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Oxford Story Collections)
Geraldine McCaughrean
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Beowulf: A New Telling
ASIN: 0192750135 |
Book Description
King Shahryar kills a new wife every night, because he is afraid she will stop loving him. But his new bride Shahrazad has a clever plan to save herself. Her nightly stories--of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many other heroes and villains--are so engrossing that King Shahryar has to
postpone her execution again and again... This illustrated edition brings together all the Arabian Nights tales in an original retelling by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean.
(paperback reissue of ISBN 0-19-274500-X)
Customer Reviews:
Ultimate Fairy Tales.......2007-08-20
"Arabian Nights" is one of those works that everyone has heard of, but not many have actually read. Hence I decided to actually read it, instead of guessing the stories of Ali Baba or Abu Kasim. I am glad that I did.
"Arabian Nights" are well deserving their reputation as one of the best collections of fairy tales anywhere. Interwoven and connected by the young Queen wanting to stay alive, and managing to do so by telling her husband stories, the collection is amazing in language, style and sheer imagination.
Most stories take place in Baghdad, and instead of a war torn, news-exploited place, Baghdad became a place of magic and place of palaces and culture so deeply entrenched, that the entire world knows of them. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to go somewhere exotic and beautiful, even if it is just in thoughts. Great reading!
Appeals to all ages.......2007-07-23
My seventh grader is reading this book to my second grader. They are both loving it.
Adventure & more!.......2007-04-01
Arabian Nights - The classic Tales of Adventure, thrilling suspense, romance and more. These Indian, Arabian and Persian mix tales are ever enchanting tales and an interesting read. The school syllabus picks up the best of the best Arabian nights stories into the text lessons since many years, esp. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sindbad the Sailor and Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. All my fav stories but the most adventurous is Sindbad the Sailor. Why, I remember Pip the Sailor and of coz, Popeye but than, the classics are the ever best of the best on my book shelf. Even Ali Baba takes you on a dreamy path to being rich and Aladdin reminds of the Genie who obeys orders.
The tales are just poetic and take kids to a world of imagination. However, I guess if religion is pushed aside by avoiding repeat 'allah', I guess this book will be a great pick by all. However, kids are sure to love reading these lovely stories. A nice pick.
You Won't Find Fairytales Any Better.......2006-11-17
Words cannot describe the fantastic quality of this collection of Arabic literature. But don't get the book just to read the tale of Ala al-Din (Aladdin) and his Wonderful Lamp, because the other tales included surpass this merely moderate one by far - although it's interesting to find out that a black midget is Aladdin's primary nemesis (upon who Disney's Jafar is based, apparently).
The stories touch on such a wide variety of unusual topics: a man's visit to the kingdom of mermaids, a dead beggar getting tripped over again and again, a guy claiming to have several volcanoes in a portable bag, a Sultan's escape from a buffalo-faced woman in the presence of a group of pink ladies, and the marriage of a prince to a turtle. Insane stuff.
My favorite story is The Everlasting Shoes by far. It's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read. It's about an old miser who's so cheap he never buys new shoes. He just patches up the pair he has whenever they get holes. The addition of so many patches naturally make his shoes bigger and bigger. Eventually the shoes become ridiculously huge and heavy and smelly, and they make a lot of noise as the miser walks. The scene of the shoes being thrown into the river and getting caught in the millwork is well worth the price of the entire book.
There's a story in here that looks VERY much like a mid-east version of Cinderella. Quite interesting.
I am unable to tell how many liberties the author has taken in translating the tales, but they're definitely fun to read. There are tons of ancient day metaphors and funny insults like, "You flea on a cockroach's kneecap!" and "Son of a plank! Did you steal your brains from a table?" I really liked reading the misfortunes of the protagonist in the Keys of Destiny stories, and the nagging wives that appear sporadically are pretty darn funny.
The things I didn't like about this book were very few. Only its frequent mentioning of Allah and the puzzling weakness of its 998th and 999th stories about a flying toy horse.
I would recommend the Arabian Knights to anybody over the age of fifteen; probably because I was so surprised at the large amount of enjoyable humor.
WOW.......2004-06-21
Absolutely the best work of fiction EVER. Indeed, I too wish, that there were 1001 stories or even 1.000.001 ones inside this lovely book but all good things must come to an end.
Anyways, if you wander, why 1001 nights? - here's the answer.
Two brothers, both Kings, have both been victims of cheating wives. They both kill them and their lovers but later on, one of the brothers, King Shahryar can't stand the loneliness in the dark so he comes to a decision to marry a new wife fetched by his Counsellor, every night then kill her next day after because he believes that "All women are fickles" and that "None of them love their husbands for more then one day"...so he marries a new wife each night until the streets began to get emptied. Then, when 'no other girl' is left, Shahrazad, the eldest girl of the King's Counsellor, becomes his 1001-st wife. Unlike other wives, Shahrzad survives because...
Do not say you read books if you didn't read this one!
Highly recommended
Book Description
Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance,
The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever.
This volume reproduces the 1932 Modern Library edition, for which Bennett A. Cerf chose the most famous and representative stories from Sir Richard F. Burton's multivolume translation, and includes Burton's extensive and acclaimed explanatory notes. These tales, including Alaeddin; or, the Wonderful Lamp, Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, have entered into the popular imagination, demonstrating that Shahrazad's spell remains unbroken.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download Description
The Complete Arabian Nights in a single edition
Customer Reviews:
good.......2007-06-13
condition of book is really good, but its dimensions are smaller than i expected.
Excellent.......2006-11-02
Richard Burton's narration is fantastic, the accompanying music adds to the mood, and the selection of tales is also good.
Universal, Timeless Storytelling.......2006-09-25
The Arabian Nights: Tales from A Thousand and One Nights -translated by Sir Richard F. Burton
Though the collection is incomplete (this edition contains only the "most famous and representative" tales from the entirety), the compendium outshines any expectation or foreknowledge of the stories and is choc with the marvelous wit of ancient Arabian storytelling. The stories have an underbidding theme all alike, good is good and evil is evil, Allah is all and always and man and manhood will be sundered, for without fail comes with the tail of every tale "the Destroyer of delights and Severer of societies, the Plunderer of palaces, and the Garnerer of graves." Reminding sundry-reader that, despite diamond caches and throes of love, all is vanity of vanity, and only the story will exist for aught. The structure of each of these stories is thematically similar: a poor man happens on a souterrain of riches, he is espied by someone of evil, foul play ensues, a moon of moons of a beauty entrances one and all, a jinn sneaks out of a signet ring, the enemy is bewitched, and the hero is consummated with love and gold. Or, the reverse. Or, the inverse. But what is unique to each of these stories is the complete freedom of happenstance. A man fishing in a pond nets a monkey. A marooned sailor flies with a giant bird to freedom. A man blind in one eye runs into another blind in one eye and they run into another blind in one eye. Ali-Babba overhears an eponymous password to a storehouse of plunder. Everything and anything goes. As well with the language, in "fairest favour and formous form," Sir Burton spares no joyance of neologism coined, alliteration aligned or rhyme rhymed. The text is bedight with proper consciousness of Shaharazad, "for interest fails in twice told tales," and "Words cannot undo the done," as we are gently and thematically reminded of the bookends: the murderous king and the maiden, Shaharazad's "fictitious" fight for survival. The stories that have so obviously leaked into our culture, Aladdin, Ali-Babba and the Forty Thieves, are so much richer, more profound, and less coddling than our cartooned interpretations (as is also the case with the Grimm and Andersen tales). In the end, it is obvious that nor King nor author nor Queen is the hero. None save the stories themselves and the love of the telling will live on.
Not for everybody...........2006-01-04
If you are looking for a book, where you can read and enjoy the stories... this is not for you. The way it is written, is so difficult to understand and there is no continuos flow in the book, which will make you so bored that you just want to stop reading.
A Children's Book not for Children-- Especially the PC Ones.......2005-11-24
The Nights were, until a week or so ago, another classic I wanted to dip into.
I somehow missed The Nights in my formal literary education.
It violates just about every left-wing-taboo.
Reading the Nights for pleasure, with Burton's help one commits the cardinal sins of Colonialism and Orientalism.
The tales themselves are consistently religious, sexist, racist, and xenophobic.
Before buying, I too knew the 'frame' for the tales: 'Shahrazade the clever woman tells stories to the King so he won't behead her', which is a rather reductive, feelgood soundbyte, perhaps, since what you don't hear is that the King has his beef with women because he and his brother both caught their wives in flagrante delicto with African slaves; about which Burton gives a useful gloss about said party's particular anatomical superiorty, replete with Burton's own first-hand real-world observations concerning this useful fact.
All that said, it's indeed easy to feel like the forgetful King, since Shahrazade's tales are not just tales, but tales within tales within tales. Her enchanting stories center on multiple characters, each with an oddball fate, each with their own uncanny stories to tell;and there are often characters in those stories that have stories. It's like a funhouse full of mirrors; but it's pleasant to get lost, as your consciousness of what part of Shahrazade's labrynth you're in falls away. Like the King, you just give in and enjoy the strange experience, and Shahrazad makes it to yet another dawn. The stories, in Burton's translation, read with a real Medieval romance kind of flavor, which I assume is endemic to the Nights and the period, and is not strictly representative of Burton's English tastes, despite his choice of peculiarly English diction.
The book itself is handsome and durable, like the rest of the Modern Library paperbacks. As a previoius reviewer has noted, this particular text is not a complete Nights. The Editor has chosen 'representative' tales to put in this collection.
The stories themselves are charming, but perhaps their palpable repetitiveness (even in a cherry-picked and abridged selection) slubbers the gloss of the supposed inventiveness of the remaining 975 or so stories.
A must for a serious reader who likes fresh air while they thumb their nose at Puritans.
Customer Reviews:
Nice book, but not written by Richard Francis Burton.......2006-08-04
I ordered this book primarily because of the illustrations by Leon Carre. I just purchased a tarot deck by Lo Scarabeo which featured his work from The Thousand and One Nights so I thought it would be interesting to see the originals. There are only a few illustrations in this book, and, note that the book is abridged. I am disappointed with how few illustrations there are considering how nice the rest of the book looks. If you are interested in Leon Carre's work, the tarot deck will have many, many more images for you to enjoy.
Book Description
Volume four of this ranslation of the wonderful tales of the Arabian nights
Customer Reviews:
The Most Complete Translation.......2007-05-18
Absolutely this is the best translation. Re-translated from a literal translation of the works made in French, and then translated back into English, the wording is modern and makes for easy reading.
Be forewarned, however. This is only Vol. I of a four volume set. And you will not be able to buy Vol. III or Vol. IV new on [...] at this current time!
To get all four volumes, I was forced to take a loss on Vols I and II ( a $[...] loss ) and forced to order the whole four Volume Set, which only comes together in the whole set - which you will be able to find here after endless searching because for some reason searching by the title and author's names does not find the four volume set easily!
So now I have two copies of both Vol. I and Vol. II, which I will donate to someone.
Also, the Four Volume set was on special back order when I ordered it and it took five months to finally come!
You will need to buy all four volumes, however, in order to get The Tale of Ala al-Din and the Wonderful Lamp, which is in Vol. III. And to get the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves which is in Vol. IV.
Unlike almost all other Thousand Nights and One Night sets, you will get all thousand-and-first nights; if you can first find the whole four volume set, wherever it is hid on [...]!
A good cultural portal.......2006-11-03
For those of us Westerners who are looking for exposure to authentic Mid-Eastern historical literature, "The Thousand Nights and One Night" is a great place to start. The various stories throughout this volume are very rich and complex, which furthermore are illustrative of a culture that appreciates diverse and adventurous experiences.
I give this work a four-star rating for three reasons. First, there is a good amount a sexuality explicit narrative which made me personally uncomfortable at times. However, this wouldn't be a problem for those readers who don't have a problem with that sort of thing; this is just my personal feelings on the matter.
Secondly, the narrative line was often hard to follow. One of the qualities of this work is that there are often stories being told within the overall story, and indeed there are sometimes three lines of stories going on. This makes for a fairly difficult read at times, but is certainly manageable for even the average reader. Lastly, the stories can be repetitive at times. A couple of times I thought I was reading the same story twice.
Needless to say, this work is probably not "bed-time" reading for most people. It's a good translation which leaves several words untranslated, which is good because their English counterparts probably wouldn't accurately express the meaning. I often read with a dictionary or the Internet open so I could look up the meaning of the Arabic words. Other than that, a great and enlightening read which I would recommend to people looking for something different to dive into.
Not what it claims.......2005-07-08
Having earlier in the year read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, I embarked on the 1001 Nights as the nearest equivalent from the Middle East. The Nights proved to be a wonderfully rich text, which evokes with unforgettable vividness the lives of rich and of poor in the great cities of medieval Egypt and the Levant; and the fantastic elements of magic and demons, and of voyages into exotic lands, show great powers of imagination along lines excitingly unfamiliar to us in the west. The version I first embarked on in all innocence was this Madrus-Mathers text; it soon excited my suspicions, and these were confirmed by reading Robert Irwin, `The Arabian Nights: A Companion'. The Mardrus version (in French) that Mathers rendered into English claimed to be an absolutely literal translation, but was nothing of the sort: it was a paraphrase which exaggerated and distorted certain elements in the original to make it appeal to the decadent taste of the France of Marcel Proust and André Gide. Mardrus was particularly concerned to make the work more sexy: the stories take on a prurience and sensuality that is miles away from the spirit of the original. Powys did a very good job in translating this dubious text, but was the job worth doing? Despite the readability of his version and the elegance of his translations of the numerous poems contained in the text, the result cannot be preferred to the older version by Richard Burton or the recent one by Husain Haddawy. The trouble, however, is that Burton wrote in an archaizing style that is an acquired taste for a modern reader, while Haddawy has translated only a quarter of the original. I would recommend starting with the first volume of Haddawy, which translates the first and oldest part of the Arabic text (Haddawy's supplementary second volume is a mere selection of a few popular stories), and then sampling Burton, which is available on the internet. This is a fascinating world to explore, but the English reader is singularly poorly served.
Wonderful translation.......2003-06-16
This is a complete English translation of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Before reading this, I started the Burton translation and never finished it. The language was very awkward, it seemed Burton purposely made it sound antiquated and in the passive voice. Instead of suiting the translation to the preconceptions Europeans had about both old and Eastern writings, Mardrus made a literal translation into French, and Mathers translated that into English. The result is not only a more acurate translation, but it's not the least bit awkward and is a joy to read. This is the only English translation of the book I recommend.
Adult fantasies.......2003-03-09
The tales just go on and on, and would probably add up to more than 1001. You need a lot of courage, detrmination and time to go through the entire collection.
The setting is medieval Islamic world. The tales offer an interesting window into the psyche of the tellers and the listerners.
Two features stand out in these stories. One is the continuing theme of 'betrayal' by women and unbridled lust by men. ... The ... prowess of 'negroes' (who go around servicing their masters' wives) appears to be a major concern for the story-tellers. The language is quite explicit (and certainly not suitable for ages 4-8 as www.Amazon.com has marked it mistakenly).
The second feature is how the story-tellers appear to be obsessed with wealth and riches. There is very little mention of how these riches are to be produced -- mostly they appear as if by magic or are endowed by kings. No one has to work for them. There are few, if any, moral principles, except for a continuing emphasis on faith in Allah and his prophet. It is interesting to speculate what effect these stories would have had on the region's culture over a thousand years of telling. If popular stories affect a culture's world-view. then you have here a very dangerous set of tales.
There are some poignant moments. At times, some of the characters display rare courage and honesty. You also learn how curiosity can kill the cat in a thousand and one ways. The Khalifa and the kings try to be just most of the time. Some of the wazirs are heroic, though others are very crooked. The description of beauty (male or female) is generally quite exquisite. The narrative also spends a lot of time and effort on describing places, chambers and palaces in detail -- so you can almost see them with your eyes. This is perhaps the key to the magic of these tales.
Certainly an invaluable piece of world's cultural heritage -- though you may differ on their contribution to building a better world.
Customer Reviews:
A Fantastical World To Be Lived Through These Pages.......2007-06-21
A collection of tales mostly of Persian, Indian, and Egyptian origin. Legend has it that Shahrazad, to prolong her life, told these tales to the king each night over 1,001 nights. In the end, the king let her lived as he had fallen in love with her. What a delightful legend!
In reality, these tales are most likely a collection that were handed down over time very much like folk tales in our Western world. They are fantastical stories in many cases involving jinnees and magical islands and far off lands and mysterious animals and beautiful women and enchanted lamps and....well, it goes on and on! There are some common themes: poor, common men become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and eventually become kings, women are (usually) portrayed as deceitful and conniving, and at the center is religion.
An entertaining and fascinating book for children and adults, although there are some stories that might need to be monitored by adults for children - the stories can be a little bawdy! But there are so many good ones here, such as Sindbad and his voyages and Aladin. However, the other stories are just as entertaining, too, such as the hilarious Historical Fart and introspective The Dream. I'm normally not a fan of fantasy fiction, but these are easy to read and easy to follow and allow the read to let their imagination just go to the four winds. Wonderful book!
A lifetime of entertaining stories.......2005-04-28
What a great book. These stories are extremely old from places such as Persia and India with a mostly arabic influence. The introduction gives great historical insight about the various tales. Of all the translated versions of these classic stories, and what was probably much more complicated original prose, I find Mr Dawood's translations simple and fun to read. The stories are rich with adventure and fantasy. Mr Dawood does an excellent job of keeping the stories down-to-earth and entertaining. Those who enjoy cryptic, esoteric literature will enjoy losing themselves in the intertwining stories of this book. With a simplistic style of story-telling, it is still intricate enough to keep one immersed. Those who already enjoy simple stories will be intrigued by the unique storylines and plots. For young, impressionable readers, the tales have no religious overtones or underlying political agenda and women are revered and respected. I first read this book when I was 12, and continue to enjoy and re-read the stories well into adulthood.
Fantastic Tales.......2002-06-14
This book is a selection of the choicest tales from the Thousand and One Nights. The translator, N.J. Dawood, also translated the Koran for the Penguin Classics series. Dawood explains in the introduction that the first of these tales appeared in a written form around 850 C.E., in a book called, "A Thousand Legends." More tales, of lesser quality, were added over the years until an anonymous editor in Cairo finally codified them in the 18th century. A French version of some of the stories appeared in the 17th century, and was followed by several English versions in the 19th century; the best known adaptation came from Sir Richard Burton, in 10 volumes. The stories are a mix of Arabic, Persian, and Indian tales and appear to have been written in response to classical Arabic literature. The Arabs do not consider them part of the classic canon, and after reading these stories, I can see why. They are aggressive and highly sexualized, and are loaded with sorcery, fantasy, and criticism of authority figures.
Whatever their origins and means of transmission, these are excellent and entertaining stories. I cannot think of one tale in this selection that I did not like. Included in the book is the instantly recognizable Aladdin story, as well as the Sinbad voyages. Other tales are just as interesting: "The Tale of the Hunchback," "The Tale of Judar and his Brothers," "The Porter and the Three Girls of Baghdad," and many others. Many of these stories are cycles; they have stories within stories, as characters in one story tell their own stories. At the end of the cycle, the story is cleverly wrapped up, usually with a happy ending. I do not think I need to go into detail about Aladdin or Sinbad, except to say that I was surprised to see Aladdin described as Chinese. Providing details to these stories would be useless anyway because they are so detailed as to be impervious to summary.
There is no doubt that many of these stories started as oral stories, and retained that shape into the written versions. The best example is the Sinbad cycle. All of the stories in this cycle are framed in the same way. This repetition made it easier to memorize the stories, or at least the basic outline. A good storyteller could take the frame and fill in the blanks with whatever his heart desired. You often see this kind of writing in the Bible.
Social roles and class play a large part in these stories. Women are presented as wily and dangerous, but not always. Several stories show men trying to pull fast ones on the ladies, with the results much to the detriment of the men. Many stories show how the high and mighty come crashing down, or how the lowly are elevated to great status. These movements are attributed to the grace or condemnation of Allah, and the characters all act out their movements with Allah close by.
You will not go wrong with this book. These are immensely entertaining stories for both children and adults, although you might want to find a toned down version for the kiddies. Why? I am thinking about the tale where a man and some women play "name that body part." My only criticism of this version is that the tale of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is absent. I have no idea why it is missing, but the book loses one star for this grave omission.
Enjoyable easy reading to take you away to fantasy land........2001-03-27
This book is translated by a person named N.J. Darwood. It's simply wonderful. The tales involved are tales of the Persian Gulf, of Bagdhad, Arabia, and tales that we as adults should revisit for some enjoyable light reading that will make us smile and wonder at the old folklore of the Arabian Peninsula. Sinbad the Sailor is in there, as is Aladdin in it's original form, and the story begins of a king who is so upset by his wife's unfaithfulness that he will now only accept virgins for one night and then have them killed. A smart virgin begins her night with the infamous king by telling him stories, and she so fascinates him and enthralls him with her tales that the tales turn into folklore for readers of the ages. I won't tell you what happens in the end to the virgin princess, but you will find humor, enchantment, wisdom and fantasy for those times when stress becomes a factor in your life. I highly recommend the tale of "The Historic Fart" as a both funny and inspiring tale of human nature. Please buy this book and remember to become a nine -12 year old again as you read with curiosity and wonder at the fabulous enchanting, lively stories. I was beginning to wish my children were a bit younger so I could read these to them. Any child would enjoy these stories, and any adult will find them simply relaxing and a reflection of medieval Islam.
Timeless stories for all!.......2001-01-03
The stories in the Thousand and One Nights never seem to grow old and captivate readers, both young and old. Dawood's translations are faithfull to the original stories while giving a firm footing in the present. This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in quite a while. If you think you know the stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, or Ali Baba from movies then think again. These tales in their original form are timeless!
Average customer rating:
- Great coming of age story (in spangles)
- Not chick lit, not Lit
- I "Cruised" Right Through This Book
- There's no biz like show biz!!
- Fun Book
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A Thousand and One Nights
Lara Tupper
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Literary
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ASIN: 0156030926 |
Book Description
Twenty-two-year-old Karla is thrilled to be hired as an entertainer on the Sound of Music cruise ship—where the rum punch is 80 percent Kool-Aid, the ice sculp- tures are plastic, and her "fake it till you make it" M.O. seems adventuresome. Karla is less thrilled when her new boyfriend, Jack, suggests that they form a singing duo on land, but by now faking enthusiasm has become a way of life. She and Jack buy backing tracks, crib lyrics from the radio, and embark on a not-as-glamorous-as-it-should-be career performing in the luxury hotel bars of the Middle East and China. But after a thousand and one nights on the road, Karla and Jack find themselves struggling to keep their act—both personal and professional—together.
Funny, fast-paced, and incisive, A Thousand and One Nights captures the performances, large and small, we use to make it through life.
Customer Reviews:
Great coming of age story (in spangles).......2007-05-10
Remember what it felt like in that stage between "young adulthood" and "adulthood?" Lara Tupper does. Not many books have captured the ennui of that time of life -- kind of a second adolescence. I could relate to main character Karla's shiftlessness and uncertainty about the future. I think I even felt her hangovers. Not that it's a downer -- it was quite fun to be in the high heels and glitter dress of the lounge singer for a short while.
Not chick lit, not Lit.......2007-05-09
I'm obviously the only person who was disappointed with this book. So many author blurbs on the covers, 2 pages of even more author praise inside led me to believe this would be a special book. Sorry, but it felt flat. Okay, so they traveled to some interesting places, but most of the book was "wake up, drink, sing, drink, pass out, repeat." It read like someone's old journal, with meaningless entries cobbled together to fill 100 pages. The main characters lacked any real development. They were bored with their lives and bored with each other. By the time I got to the wrap up at the end, ("whatever happened to....") I really didn't care because I never got to know them.
I "Cruised" Right Through This Book.......2007-05-07
After hearing from my son what a great book this was and respecting his opinion so highly, I purchased it from Amazon immediately. I was so delighted that he suggested this book to me because it was a gold mine. Ms Tupper gave us a poignant look behind the "glamorous life" of being first a performer on a cruise ship and then what life on the road is like as part of a duo that gets to perform in exciting, far away places. It was so illuminating to learn what the crew experiences when they are not out there assisting and making the passengers happy. Ms. Tupper really takes you there with her and allows you to experience the difficulties endured as she endures them. Her touches of humor made me smile and long for such an adventure myself, while the sadness and longing to be back home that pervaded at times made you want to find her and hug her and tell her its going to be allright. Her colorful description of the places she visited and the places she performed in came to life for me as if I were there. This was an excellent read and I look forward to more from Ms Tupper. This book is a tresure and it's my new favorite gift to buy for birthdays and other occasions. Bravo Ms. Tupper.
There's no biz like show biz!!.......2007-05-05
What a terrific ride through the back-stage of entertainment and show biz! The bright light view of the ship's lounges and bars provide a clear and accurate view of entertainment on the high seas. My mother was a lounge musician around clubs and also with larger venues involving all girl revue shows and acts in the summer world of state and county fairs. Lara Tupper's novel brought to me the poignancy and weariness we experienced as the season wore on. The stale, demanding, hopeful people who inhabit this world all show up here. What a great capture of the thrill and despair of entertaining and living in a world of make-up and costumes. The romances, both professional and personal kept me quietly cheering for the characters to succeed in situations where heartbreak or even loss of desire can smother all things beautiful and promising. I loved this story so much that I hated to see it end. I want to go back and discover there are more pages and chapters to embrace me.
I look forward to more from Tupper. Write on!
Fun Book.......2007-03-19
"Fun book about a not so good entertainer who is hired to sing and dance in third rate locations around the world."
Book Description
For centuries, readers have been fascinated by the stories of the Arabian Nights. Perhaps the best-known is Sindbad the Sailor. He discovers an island paradise, but it is actually a giant whale. He sees a huge mountain. It is, in fact, the egg of the famous Roc, a bird so huge that she can carry an elephant in her talons. Sindbad manages to escape from Roc’s nest by tying his turban to the bird’s leg and is transported to the final adventure in this volume: the Valley of Diamonds. It is a story of high adventure and wit overcoming any obstacle.
Customer Reviews:
Charming Art.......2005-09-03
The art in this book is very charming, but we found the story-telling to be a bit stiff in places. Still, it's a great way to introduce younger children to Sindbad.
Average customer rating:
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The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society (Levi Della Vida Symposia)
Richard Hovannisian , and
Georges Sabagh
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521573971 |
Book Description
The Thousand and One Nights has captivated audiences for centuries, conveying universal messages through the adventures of both historical and nonhistorical figures. Yet, since medieval times, it has not been considered worthy of serious literary debate, and has been marginalized in the tradition of high Arabic literature. This book has successfully defied this taboo and in a brilliant combination of medieval and modern studies has emphasized the continuity, rather than the compartmentalization of Arabo-Islamic culture.
Book Description
Translated by Edward William Lane. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1865 edition by Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, London.
Book Description
Cleopatra: the most beautiful queen who ruled and destroyed the hero. Her name will be remembered eternally among those who loved her. Even more among those who hated her. On the third night, Shahrazad tells the extraordinary story of the beloved, yet tragic Queen Cleopatra. Come along and listen to the fascinating tale alongside the Sultan.
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