GeorgeSkywalker
Member
Two questions.
1) Which Arabian Nights translation in English is the most comprehensive? i.e. contains all the stories. I might be wrong but the translation I read by Andrew Lang may not contain all the stories. Is the most comprehensive one this (note link is vol 1 only):
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34206
2) In the Arabian Nights which is your favorite story? and why?
For me I quite liked The Story of Ali Cogia, The Merchant of Bagdad. The story works well at many levels e.g. Ali being betrayed by his friend, then a corrupt cadi. Ali never gave up though and received justice in the end because the Caliph was good. Lastly but not least the child who could reason good from bad and wise beyond his time. For example he said, "Commander of the Faithful, this is not a game now; it is for your Highness to condemn him to death and not for me."
The last line is quite relevant to, "The Caliph ordered the Cadi to learn how to deal out justice from the mouth of a child".
I guess in real life we don't always get justice and this is why stories can be important i.e. something we can all aspire to.
1) Which Arabian Nights translation in English is the most comprehensive? i.e. contains all the stories. I might be wrong but the translation I read by Andrew Lang may not contain all the stories. Is the most comprehensive one this (note link is vol 1 only):
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34206
2) In the Arabian Nights which is your favorite story? and why?
For me I quite liked The Story of Ali Cogia, The Merchant of Bagdad. The story works well at many levels e.g. Ali being betrayed by his friend, then a corrupt cadi. Ali never gave up though and received justice in the end because the Caliph was good. Lastly but not least the child who could reason good from bad and wise beyond his time. For example he said, "Commander of the Faithful, this is not a game now; it is for your Highness to condemn him to death and not for me."
The last line is quite relevant to, "The Caliph ordered the Cadi to learn how to deal out justice from the mouth of a child".
I guess in real life we don't always get justice and this is why stories can be important i.e. something we can all aspire to.