A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
326K words
Chapters
33

Tags

English Originals Folk LiteratureWorld Classics Oriental LegendAdventure JourneyFantastical NarrativeFolktalesShort Story CollectionArabian NightsExotic CultureCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, NowAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PJ: Language and Literatures: Oriental languages and literatures, Release Date: Nov 26, 2018

Editor's review

This electronic edition is valuable for making a complete public-domain literal translation of The Arabian Nights available, giving readers direct access to the narratives before Victorian child-friendly expurgation. The literal style preserves the syntax and repetitive structures of the original, making it especially useful for those studying the transmission of folktales, translation history, and the reception of Orientalism. Reading it, one clearly feels the tension of the story-within-a-story frame and the worldly atmosphere of merchants, courts, and street life. It is better suited as a source text for reference or comparative reading than as casual reading for a smooth storytelling experience. Being a public-domain e-book, its layout and notes are plain, so readers need their own background knowledge or accompanying introductory materials. Overall, it is a text suited to slow reading, excerpting, and comparative reading, revealing the rough texture of The Arabian Nights in its early dissemination in the English-speaking world.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the frame story and two or three well-known tales first, get a feel for the literal syntax, then decide how much to read through.
  2. Keep a notebook and jot down recurring narrative motifs for easy cross-comparison.
  3. Read alongside an introductory article on the English translation history of The Arabian Nights to fill in background.
  4. No need to read in order; jump among merchant, court, or street-life tales by theme.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33

FAQ

How is this edition different from common storybooks of The Arabian Nights? This is a public-domain literal translation that preserves the syntax and repetitive structures of an earlier English version, without modern child-friendly rewriting. It is closer to a source text, suitable for research or comparative reading rather than smooth casual reading.
Can readers with average English read it? They can try, but archaic syntax and repetitive narrative add difficulty. Start with the frame story and short tales, use a dictionary and background guide, and do not feel obliged to read the whole book.
Does the book include notes or an introduction? From the available information, this is a public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg with plain layout and notes, usually without a systematic introduction. Readers need to supply their own background materials.
Is it suitable for classroom use? It suits selected reading in university courses on folklore or translation, especially for comparing different translations. Teachers need to supplement background explanations and suggested selections.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.