Author(s): Sir Richard Francis Burton

Poetry

"The Arabian Nights is more generally loved than Shakespeare," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. And the best-known versions of these ancient middle eastern tales are those by the great Victorian English explorer and writer, Richard F. Burton. Also known as A Thousand and One Nights, the stories were told by Scheherazade to entertain her husband, the King, who customarily executed his wives after a single right. Scheherazade cleverly began a story each night but withheld the ending until the following evening, thereby managing to stave off disaster. This original selection includes six of the most famous tales: Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman, Aladdin; or the Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, as well as The Fisherman and the Jinni, Judar and His Brethren, and Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad.