Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her the next morning. To end this brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king stories of adventure, love, riches and wonder - tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, the Angel of Death and magical spirits, tales of the voyages of Sindbad, of Ali Baba outwitting a band of forty thieves and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps.
The sequence of stories will last 1,001 nights. 'Slave of Desire explores the stories in the anonymous medieval Arabic work The 1001 Nights. The tales that make up The 1001 Nights (also known as The Arabian Nights) are told by Shahrazad to King Shahriyar each night in order to ransom her life for one more day, and they have been recognized as classics of narrative art since their first appearance in European translation three centuries ago. The influence of the Nights since then has also been extensive; the stories of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,' 'Aladdin,' and 'Sinbad' have been mined for numerous Hollywood B movies, and at the same time crop up along with other stories and characters as allusions and points of reference in the works of such authors as Proust, Joyce, and Borges.' 'Slave of Desire, through its analyses of various stories, reveals The 1001 Nights to be a very different sort of work, a sophisticated and subtle piece of literature that can provoke and disturb as much as it entertains and amuses.
Daniel Beaumont, a scholar of medieval Arabic literature, draws upon the ideas of Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Slavoj Zizek to explore the meaning of such famous stories as the frame tale of Shahrazad and King Shahriyar, 'The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,' 'The Hunchback' and many others. He discusses the stories both in the context of medieval Islamic culture and in the wider context of world literature. A famous love story such as 'Qamar al-Zaman' is considered both in terms of the medieval Islamic literature of love and Freudian notions; the story of Shahrazad and Shahriyar is probed by means of Kojeve's analysis of the master-slave relation; and the notion of 'dream-work' is used to show how 'The Merchant and the Jinni' reuses and transforms Biblical plots and characters for a medieval Muslim readership. By means of these and other wide-ranging comparisons with literary works both Arabic and Western, the author reveals surprising, and often amusing, aspects to the stories.' -BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Notorious for the delight he took in tweaking the sexual taboos of the Victorian age-as well as the delight he took in the resulting shock of his bashful peers-British adventurer, linguist, and author CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON (1821-1890) is perhaps best remembered for his unexpurgated translation of the Eastern classic The One Thousand and One Nights, more famously known today as The Arabian Nights. Originating in Persian, Indian, and Arabic sources as far back as the ninth century AD, this collection of bawdy tales-which Burton was the first to bring to English readers in uncensored form-has exerted incalculable influence on modern literature. It represents one of the earliest examples of a framing story, as young Shahrazad, under threat of execution by the King, postpones her death by regaling him with these wildly entertaining stories over the course of 1,001 nights. The stories themselves feature early instances of sexual humor, satire and parody, murder mystery, horror, and even science fiction.
Burton's annotated 16-volume collection, as infamous as it is important, was first published between 1885 and 1888, and remains an entertainingly naughty read. Volume II includes: 'Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis' 'Tale of Ghanim Bin Ayyub, The Distraught, The Thrall O'Love' 'Tale of the First Eunich, Baukhayt' 'Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur' 'Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan' 'Tale of Taj Al-Muluk and the Princess Dunya' 'Tale of Aziz and Azizah'. Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her next morning. To end this brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king tales of adventure, love, riches and wonder - tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, the Angel of Death and magical spirits, tales of the voyages of Sindbad, of Ali Baba's outwitting a band of forty thieves and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps.
1001 Arabian Nights Geraldine Mccaughrean Pdf File
The sequence of stories will last 1,001 nights. Shant Kenderian's visit to Baghdad in 1980, at age seventeen, was supposed to be a short one - just enough time to make peace with his estranged father before returning to his home in the United States. But then Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and sealed off Iraq's borders to every man of military age - including Shant. Suddenly forced onto the front lines, his two-week visit turned into a nightmare that lasted for ten years. 1001 Nights in Iraq presents a human story that provides unique insight into a country and culture that we only get a hint of in the headlines. After surviving the horrors of the Iran-Iraq War, Shant was then forced to fight on the front lines of Desert Storm without being given the proper equipment, including a gun, but miraculously survived to be captured by the Americans and become a POW.
He underwent starvation, heavy interrogations, and solitary confinement, but what broke him in the end was his love affair with a female American soldier. Yet throughout this whole ordeal, Shant never lost his respect for people, his faith in God, or his sense of humor.
The Kite Rider Geraldine Mccaughrean
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