Reading Notes: The Arabian Nights Part A

This Unit is about a Sultan who is filled with hatred for women, and so he marries a new wife every night and kills her every morning. One day, the Grand Vizier's daughter has a plan and asks to be the wife for the next day. She goes ahead with this, and begins a story the morning before when she was supposed to be killed.

She then begins the story of a man who takes a break under a tree and accidentally kills a genius's son. The genius then says he will hill the merchant, but the merchant bargains for one year of his life to say goodbye to his family.

The Sultan wants to hear the rest of the story, so allows Scheherazade to live one more day; this continues until the story is done.

The merchant returns a year later, and is about to be killed, when an old man with him begs for a story in return for his life.

The old man tells stories of his experiences with magic, which include many personal references (we do not know if these are real or not)

The rest of the unit continues stories that delay Scheherazade's death, each with similar but also interesting plot changes.

The Story of the Fisherman

[LIBRIVOX AUDIO]

Source: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).