The Arabian Nights

By: Andrew Lang - translator

Narrated by: Suehyla El Attar

Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Scheherazade, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Scheherazade always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever.

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

I enjoyed the short stories. The only thing that I disliked was that the story began with the sultan killing his wives after one night due to his first wife’s betrayal. The daughter of the sultan’s head of the household wanted to stop the killings and thought she would be able to do this by telling her stories and by postponing her death by leaving the sultan on a cliffhanger. It did this one time in the Audible program, but then just continued with the stories. There was no closure as to what happened to the daughter telling her stories. It left you wondering, if you did not already know the ending of the story. The narrator did an excellent job in story telling.

Classic

Love this classic and the performers was excellent! A must read for both young and old

Good Story. Good Narration

Good story, or stories. Each new story flowed from the previous one. The narrator was fair. She often lost the flow of the narrative. It was a good listen over all.

Entertaining but Archaic!

Some entertaining tales, some mystical tales, some romantic tales and a whole lot of Islamic paternalism.

Good, But Not Burton

What did you love best about The Arabian Nights?

The length and breadth of the stories is amazing. The combination of real and imaginary places, people, animals, and supernatural beings is dazzling. These stories are works of imagination of a high order. They also provide a great many insights into the Islamic world of the Middle Ages that created them.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Harun al-Rashid of course. He was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph. He ruled from 786 to 809. His reign make well have been the apogee of the Islamic Golden Age. He promoted Islamic art and music along with science and commerce.

Which scene was your favorite?

So many come to mind, it is hard to choose. The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor stand out. However, the tale of the Christian, Jew, and Muslim who all plead guilty to a murder they did not commit (to save someone else) is noteworthy as well.

Any additional comments?

This is both a good to great, and limited narration of the Arabian Nights. The single best feature of this narration is its length (11 hours and 35 minutes). The Arabian Nights is very large collection of stories of varying quality. However, even the very best stories still take many, many hours to narrate. Some of the other audiobooks narrating the Arabian Nights are just too short. This one is not.

Initially I was somewhat wary of a female narration. The stories are generally written from a male perspective and implied storyteller is almost always male. However, after listening to this audiobook, I can strongly recommend Suehyla El Attar's narration.

Others have suggested that this narration is not based on the Burton translations of the Arabian Nights (Lang is suggested as the source). This may or may not be true. However, the language does not appear to be Burton's. Most of the sex and violence has been authentically retained from the original stories. However, the Islamic character and context has been largely deleted. These are (mostly) stories from the Islamic Middle Ages and the Burton translation retained the pervasive Islamic environment of the stories. This version does not.