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  • The Arabian Nights Entertainments

  • By: Louis Rhead
  • Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
  • Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (52 ratings)

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The Arabian Nights Entertainments

By: Louis Rhead
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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Summary

The central core of the stories concerns a Persian king and his new bride. The king has a brother who is a vizier in faraway Samarcand, and he invites him to come to the palace for a visit. Just before his departure, the vizier is shocked to discover his wife's infidelity. Enraged, he kills her. Full of pain and grief, the vizier continues on to the court of his brother, the king. But, once arrived at his brother's palace, the vizier soon discovers the king's wife is also involved in an even more flagrant infidelity, which he reluctantly reports to him.

The maddened king, Shahryar, then kills his wife, too. The distrustful king next decides to marry an endless succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning before she has a chance to dishonor him. Weeks go by. Eventually, Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride. She is convinced she knows how to stop the slaughter. Her father reluctantly agrees to the marriage.

On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. And so it goes on for 1,001 nights....

Listen as the fabulous tales of Alladin, Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many others sweep you away to the Golden Age of Islam.

Public Domain (P)2013 Audio Connoisseur
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What listeners say about The Arabian Nights Entertainments

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    5 out of 5 stars

wish it literally was 1001 stories!

great narration. And the stories were unlike most childhood stories that i had heard! :)

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Wonderful stories read by a great storyteller

Would you consider the audio edition of The Arabian Nights Entertainments to be better than the print version?

As a child I read and loved 1001 Arabian nights. Listening to Louis Rhead I was once again transported to places like Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus, as well as China and Africa. And I loved reliving some of the great adventures such as Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.

What about Charlton Griffin’s performance did you like?

Louis Rhead has a wonderful voice and I was transported to places like Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus, as well as China and Africa. The Arabian Nights story includes fairy tales, fables, romances, farces, legends, and parables. It's about good versus evil and in each story there is an assumption that life is always worth living and that human endeavour, along with human weakness, is a wonderful and fascinating thing to behold.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The Arabian Nights story includes fairy tales, fables, romances, farces, legends, and parables. The one story I did not remember and loved was The Story of the Humpback.

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3 people found this helpful

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Great

It has a very good select of story's and also was very long so I Dident just run out quickly

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very entertaining

A great listen. Very well narated. I thoroughly enjoyed listening this ancient tale. Highly recommended.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Badly edited

Of course the 1001 nights is wonderful. However, this book is badly edited with the introduction appearing after 7.5h and the book starting half way through a story.

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4 people found this helpful