该作讲述相传古代印度与中国之间有一萨桑国,国王山鲁亚尔生性残暴嫉妒,因王后行为不端,将其杀死,此后每日娶一少女,翌日晨即杀掉,以示报复。宰相的女儿山鲁佐德为拯救无辜的女子,自愿嫁给国王,用讲述故事方法吸引国王,每夜讲到zui精彩处,天刚好亮了,使国王爱不忍杀,允她下一夜继续讲。她的故事一直讲了一千零一夜,国王终于被感动,与她白首偕老。
Sindbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba: all make their spectacular entrance onto the stage of English literary history in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments 1704—1717. The tales with which Scheherazade nightly postpones the murderous intent of the sultan initiate a pattern of literary reference and influence which today remains as powerful and intense as it was throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This edition reproduces in its entirety the earliest English translation of the French orientalist Antoine Galland’s Mille et une Nuit. This remained for over an incalculable number of writers, and no other edition offers this complete text supplemented by full textual apparatus.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Select Chronology of the Life of Antoine Galland and the
Appearance of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments in Europe
ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS
Appendix II: Plot Summaries
Explanatory Notes
Index of Tales and Proper Names