1001 Nights

[IWilKikU]

I just got the entire 1001 Nights in English for ............
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This is going to piss you off.
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I'm warning you.
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Your going to be mad!
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Ok fine! Read it anyways, but I warned you!

2.50! God bless Charity-shops (thrift stores)!

[crisaor]

*Utter disbelief*
The WHOLE thing??? :confused:

[Dr Cynic]

Ok it's a snip at that price, but would you mind answering these questions:

1) how many volumes is it?
2) the total number of pages?
3)what's the publisher's name and who is the translator?

[Koa]

what's that? (and what's a charity shop? me only has normal shops to be ripped off)

[IWilKikU]

Well, I guess you arn't MAD, but only cause you dont believe me yet :D :D :D.

Answers:
1. four volumes.
2. vol 1, 644. vol 2, 592. vol 3, 569, vol 4, 536. Total pages=2341
3. Published by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc.
Translated from Arabic to French by Dr. J.C. Mardrus
Translated from French to English by Powys Mathers

There are literally 1001 little interjections that say "But when the thirty-sixth night had come, SHE SAID:" And then the text continues with it's story. I know how imense and hard to find this set is. Thats why I excitedly posted that I found it for less than your lunch cost.

If you want to know what the back says:

"A great classic of world literature, The Thousand Nights and One Night is familiar to most of us throught the Tales of the Arabian Nights - Scheherezade, Sindvad, Harun al-Rashid, Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Yet we know many of these stories only through nursery versions, pale shades of their original selves. This translation, the only compete and accurate one in English and now available in paperback, presents a full and frank version of the Arabian Nihts. The world's most vivid and absorbing stories are here given in a full and unexpurgated translation, and in all the enthralling power of their narrative. Wonderfully readable, The Thousand Nights and One Night tell of a world of magical beauty, of the East and its enchantments, and of an art of living which was the product of one of the world's great civilizations."

Sorry if there were typoes, I was looking at the back of the book rather than the screen.

Koa, Charity shops (or thrift stores in America) are little shops that take donations of second-hand clothes, books, dishes, videos, ect., and sell them really cheap. Alot of impoverished people do most of their shopping at them (as do immegrant students who have no money and don't have time to work full time). That means that someone DONATED, thats right THREW AWAY, this set. I couldn't believe it myself until I took them home with me. I dont think that whoever owned them even took the books out of the box!

[crisaor]

Originally posted by IWilKikU
Well, I guess you aren't MAD, but only cause you dont believe me yet :D :D :D.
I ain't mad, but only because I already own them. You made a great find kik, you really did. BTW, could you tell me what other books do they they have? ;)

[Dr Cynic]

Originally posted by IWilKikU
Well, I guess you arn't MAD, but only cause you dont believe me yet ..

No I ain't mad, and this is not about believing you. I asked those questions cos I've got a copy of the Persian translation of "Alf Lila wa Lila"- the Thousand and One Nights, and I wanted to know whether they contain the complete set of those famous stories.

The Persian series comes in 3 volumes, each about 600 pages long, and the translator is an Arab/Iranian guy named Abdul Latif al-Tasooji.

I've also seen the French translation, published by Editions Folio-I think it's got 3 volumes. There is yet another version, a single volume (about 400) entitled "Arabian Nights" compiled by an Iraqi chap named Haddawy and published by Norton, but this must be an abridged version.

Anyway that's a real bargain, nay, a windfall you've got there: Bonne Lecture!

PS- Where is that charity shop, by the way?

[IWilKikU]

The charity shop is a little hole in the wall in Bracknell, Berkshire, England. Its books come and go. Mostly paperback romance and other comercial titles. Every now and than they get some classics. There are 4 charity shops that I hit at least once a week in Bracknell, the best being Oxfam. Finding good stuff at these is pretty much catch as cat can. If I see ANYTHING that I want, I buy it. I know that in every small English town I've been in there are charity shops. They all sell books really cheap, but I doubt if you'll find that bargain ever agian. I havn't thought to check thrift stores back home in America regularly for books. Does anyone know what the used book scene is like in American thrift stores???

[ajoe]

Originally posted by Koa
what's that? (and what's a charity shop? me only has normal shops to be ripped off)

A store that is theoretically for the poorer people and vet. But I'm not all that poor and I go there all the time. :D The stuff there are mostly used, but if you're lucky you can get very good and rare stuff (including books).