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From: pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (pam pincha)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: "Tales from the 1001 Nights"
Message-ID: <387@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Nov-85 15:46:39 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.387
Posted: Mon Nov 25 15:46:39 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 11:15:11 EST
References: <1475@videovax.UUCP> <632@mtung.UUCP>
Reply-To: pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (pam pincha)
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Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 46

In article <632@mtung.UUCP> jhc@mtung.UUCP (Jonathan Clark) writes:
>Nobody really agrees on which stories make up
>the set, and so different editions carry different subsets.
>For example, the 'Sinbad' stories are popularly included,
>even though they were (probably) not in the original.
>
>If you read a young person's edition then you may find that
>you quickly become bored with the full translation - it
>does tend to be full of phrases such as 'O King live for
>ever' and 'Praise be to Al-lah'.
>
>In addition, most editions printed more than ~15 years ago
>were based on a translation done in the last century by a
>English gentleman (whose name eludes me), whose work

 Sir Rchard Burton

>reflected the then current mores. In other words it was
>heavily bowdlerized. If you are into censoring what your
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Burton WROTE the ORIGINAL translation after spending
a considerable amount of time in the Middle East.
It was mainly an anthrpological study -- hence the
more dry reading (his footnotes are almost more interesting
than some of the stories). It was very graphical both sexual
and violence wise. (Note Sir Richard was NOT known to
write anything to reflect the NORMAL mores of Victorian
England. He was a noted rebel when it came to English
mores versus what he had studied across the world. I think the
story that you ran across was mixed up.) The children's
version is a much watered down selections of just a very
small amount of the original (which is fouteen volumes
and contains several hundred stories). This is why different
versions (abridged ones that is)vary. (This is also
why ,as is stated below, one should pre-read the versions -
especially the original translation collection.)


>children are exposed to then pre-reading of a modern
>translation is advised. It can get quite explicit in places
>(and I do *not* consider phrases such as 'her thighs were
>like white marble; her breasts were like <fill in your
>favourite metaphor here>' to be explicit).


P.M.Pincha-Wagener