Arabian Nights - Online Editions
The electronic editions below are recommended for their readability and are representative of specific editions and translations. Copies for donwloading in various formats can be found in the Libraries' Catalog. Scroll down this page (right column) for a free electronic version available to all.
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 1) by Call Number: [Electronic Book; WSU AccessID & Password Required]ISBN: 9780203407608Publication Date: 1986This first of a four-volume set considered to be a reasonably accurate (and enjoyably readable!) translation of the wonderful tales of the Arabian Nights.
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (Vol. 2) by Call Number: [Electronic Book; WSU AccessID & Password Required]ISBN: 0203359127Publication Date: 1986Volume 2 of a four-volume set considered to be a reasonably accurate (and enjoyably readable!) translation of the wonderful tales of the Arabian Nights.
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (Vol. 3) by Call Number: [Electronic Book; WSU AccessID & Password Required]ISBN: 0203359135Publication Date: 1986Volume 3 of a four-volume set considered to be a reasonably accurate (and enjoyably readable!) translation of the wonderful tales of the Arabian Nights.
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (Vol. 4) by Call Number: [Electronic Book; WSU AccessID & Password Required]ISBN: 9780415045421Publication Date: 1986Volume 4 of a four-volume set considered to be a reasonably accurate (and enjoyably readable!) translation of the wonderful tales of the Arabian Nights.
Arabian Night's Entertainments by Call Number: [Electronic Book; WSU AccessID & Password Required]ISBN: 0192828320Publication Date: 1995The tales with which Scheherazade nightly postpones the Sultan's murderous intent have entered our language and our lives like no other collection of stories before or since. Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin: all make their appearance in this selection of Arabian Nights' Entertainments. This edition is the only one to offer the complete text of the earliest English translation, and also provides full notes and plot summaries, especially important in a such a sprawling work of great complexity.
Featured Databases
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text online access to back issues of many scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.
Arabian Nights, Hathi Trust
This online edition (from HathiTrust.org) is freely available to all!
Introduction to the Arabian Nights (ألف ليلة وليلة)
PBS' "Invitation to World Literature - 1001 Nights"
This introduction is from the PBS series "Invitation To World Literature - 1001 Nights". Literary and cultural experts join producers Aly Jetha and Shabnam Rezaei as they talk about the famous book of 1001 Nights and how it has influenced their lives and why they decided to produce the animated cartoon series "1001 Nights" for children.
The original 1001 Nights framing story about King Shahryar and the famous story teller Shahrzad (Scheherzade) is discussed, as are other works that have used the literature as a source of inspiration, such as Rimsky-Korsakov's famous composed music piece by the same name.
The Arabian Nights (ألف ليلة وليلة)
The Arabian Nights (Alif Layla wa Layla or ألف ليلة وليلة in Arabic) are among the most well-known stories in the world. Their authorship, and exact country-of-origin unknown, they are the fantastic legends on which many westerners' impressions of the historical Middle East are based. I invite you to pick up a copy (or find one online on this guide), read a tale or two, and attend the program on November 7th, 2013 (details above). These marvelous tales and illustrations strike a chord - of the familiar, fantastic, exciting, adventurous, clever, titillating, - and sometimes even instructive - nature of the best storytelling. More resources relating to the Arabian Nights and other tales from the Middle East can be found throughout this page.
- Karen Liston, Librarian Liaison for Near Eastern Studies, AQ8554@wayne.edu, (313) 577-5596
WSU Digitization through eTextReader
Highlights from the September 2013 Arabian Nights Display
How the Arabian Nights Inspired the American Dream, 1790-1935 by Call Number: Purdy-Kresge E 169.1 .N314 2009ISBN: 9780807832745Publication Date: 2009Americans have always shown a fascination with the people, customs, and legends of the "East"--witness the popularity of the stories of the Arabian Nights, the performances of Arab belly dancers and acrobats, the feats of turban-wearing vaudeville magicians, and even the antics of fez-topped Shriners. In this captivating volume, Susan Nance provides a social and cultural history of this highly popular genre of Easternized performance in America until the Great Depression. According to Nance, these traditions reveal how a broad spectrum of Americans, including recent immigrants and impersonators, behaved as producers and consumers in a rapidly developing capitalist economy. In admiration of the Arabian Nights, people creatively reenacted Eastern life, but these performances were also demonstrations of Americans' own identities, Nance argues. The story of Aladdin, made suddenly rich by rubbing an old lamp, stood as a particularly apt metaphor for how consumer capitalism might benefit each person. The leisure, abundance, and contentment that many imagined were typical of Eastern life were the same characteristics used to define "the American dream." The recent success of Disney's Aladdin movies suggests that many Americans still welcome an interpretation of the East as a site of incredible riches, romance, and happy endings. This abundantly illustrated account is the first by a historian to explain why and how so many Americans sought out such cultural engagement with the Eastern world long before geopolitical concerns became paramount.
The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective by Call Number: Check out this book at the PK Display!ISBN: 9780814332870Publication Date: 2007Topics range from the history of the Arabian Nights manuscripts, to positioning the Nights in modern and postmodern discourse, to the international reception of the Nights in written and oral tradition.
Stranger Magic: charmed states and The Arabian Nights by Call Number: Check out this book at the PK Display!ISBN: 0674055306Publication Date: 2012Stranger Magic examines the wondrous tales of the Arabian Nights, their profound impact on the West, and the progressive exoticization of magic since the eighteenth century, when the first European translations appeared. Their popularity during the Enlightenment was no accident: dreams, projections, and fantasies are essential to making the leap beyond the frontiers of accepted knowledge into new scientific and literary spheres. In Warner's hands, the Arabian Nights reveal the under-appreciated cultural exchanges between East and West, Islam and Christianity, and cast light on the magical underpinnings of contemporary experience, where mythical principles, as distinct from religious belief, enjoy growing acceptance.
From Genie to Efreet
From Genie to Efreet:
Fantastic Apparitions in the Tales of the Arabian Nights
Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 3:30 p.m.
Bernath Auditorium
David Adamany Undergraduate Library
5150 Anthony Wayne Drive
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Dr. Anne Duggan is an Associate Professor of French and the Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Wayne State University, and is a Co-Editor (with Cristina Bacchilega) of Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies (Wayne State University Press).
Dr. Duggan will consider the evolution of the genie as a fantastic apparition from its emergence in French literature at the beginning of the eighteenth century to its development into the early twentieth century. In order to follow the textual and visual evolutions of the figure, Dr. Duggan will examine tales frequently depicted by illustrators of French and English editions, including: the lady of the rings of the frame narrative; "The Merchant and the Genie;" "The Fisherman and the Genie;" and "Aladdin." As will become evident, the illustrated genie of the Old Regime has nothing to do with the turban- or fez-wearers of the twentieth century; however, the one aspect the genie maintains throughout its transformations over time (at least until Disney), is a fear we might associate with the fantastic that the creature inspires in those before whom it appears.