The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Volumes 1 - 4 Complete

Well it took me over two years of chipping away at it, but I have completed the four book, 2342 page epic [b:The Book of Thousand Nights and One Night 12176177 The Book of Thousand Nights and One Night (4 volume set) Anonymous https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1384159080s/12176177.jpg 45998791].This is the English translation from the French translation of Dr JC Mardrus by Powys Mathers. I know from perusing other editions that the stories are in a different order, and the spelling of names is significantly different. This edition is by the Folio Press (1980) and contains a lot of black and white artwork by Frank Martin and Eric Fraser - and they are great in themselves.It could be nothing short of 5 stars.It is truly an epic collection - hundreds and hundreds of stories - of religious teachings, moralistic tales, bawdy tales, fantastic tales of creatures, demons and djinns, comedic stories, stories of sadness, stories within stories.Set largely from Baghdad, but ranging from Iraq through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Yemen, as far as India, and other named places fallen to obscurity or lost.The famous stories - The Voyages of Sindbad, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Ala Addin and the Wonderful Lamp are there, but so many more. All told by Shahrazad to King Shahzaman and her sister Dunyazad, in the hope of remaining alive another night...