Promotional Information

"The Arabian Nights" has become a synonym for the fabulous and the exotic. Many people are familiar with the stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. Yet few people have a clear idea of when the book was written or what exactly it is. This companion seeks to remedy this.

Table of Contents

Preface to the second edition Introduction I Beautiful Infidels II The Book Without Authors III Oceans of Stories IV The Storyteller's Craft V Street Entertainments VI Low Life VII Sexual Fictions VIII The Universe of Marvels IV Formal Readings X Children of the Nights Chronology Notes Index

About the Author

Robert Irwin is a Research Associate at SOAS and the Middle East Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He has also written novels, often focusing on Arabic themes and the Arab world.

Reviews

A generous and erudite book...We’re in the company of someone who loves The Arabian Nights, and who has generously shared that love with us through this companion.
*Independent on Sunday*

A work both learned and witty...Robert Irwin has wonderfully deepened the pleasures and the interest in reading The Arabian Nights as a supreme work of imaginative fiction.
*TLS*

Irwin organizes his material like a good storyteller...he gives us the crystallized sum of The Nights: anecdote, history, moral fable, aphorism, story after story, wonder upon wonder. This monumental, infinitely faceted gem should be every writer's bedtime sampler.
*New Statesman & Society*

Superlative...just the sort of relaxed, informative book that Edmund Wilson might have written had he grown interested in the Middle East and its early literature.
*Washington Post*