12 h 29 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a story is the only thing standing between you and a cruel ruler?
Scheherazade marries a sultan whose grief has hardened into cruelty. Each night, she tells him stories, hoping to save herself and the women of his kingdom. Andrew Lang’s The Arabian Nights Entertainments gathers tales from the Middle East and beyond, with one story opening inside another. Here, a clever mind can matter more than strength, and danger can rise from a sealed bottle.
Meet the Merchant and the Genie, and the Fisherman who must outwit an angry spirit. Follow Sinbad the Sailor into monster-haunted seas, Aladdin toward a magic lamp, and Ali Baba toward a robbers’ secret cave. These adventures bring wealth, power, and peril within reach of ordinary people. Their choices invite you to wonder who sees danger clearly—and who knows how to survive it.
What you’ll discover
- A storyteller’s courage Watch Scheherazade place her hope in stories as she faces a ruler who trusts no one.
- Magic with sharp edges Discover genies and lamps that bring danger as well as the promise of power.
- The pull of adventure Sail with Sinbad through strange creatures, sudden peril, and the longing to travel again.
- Wit against strength Meet Morgiana, whose eye for small signs of danger makes her quick thinking matter.
- Stories within stories Follow tales that open into other tales, drawing you from one uncertain fate to another.
Who will love it
For readers who love adventure tales of the East, genies, magic lamps, and clever people who survive by wit, and for parents who enjoy reading aloud.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storyteller bargains for her life
- Genies are dangerous and can be outwitted
- Sinbad sails for wealth and survives by luck
- Aladdin finds a lamp and a hard lesson
- Ali Baba and the cave of the forty thieves
- What the tales teach and how they are told
Who’s who
- ScheherazadeThe vizier's clever daughter who marries the sultan and tells him stories each night, hoping to save herself and the women of the kingdom.
- The SultanA ruler hardened by betrayal, who takes a new bride each day and must be won back to trust.
- Sinbad the SailorA rich Baghdad merchant who tells of seven voyages, each full of danger, strange creatures, and a longing to travel again.
- AladdinA careless poor boy who finds a magic lamp and must learn to use great power wisely, while winning a princess.
- Ali BabaA poor woodcutter who overhears the password to a robbers' cave and tries to use the secret without being caught.
- MorgianaAli Baba's quick-witted slave girl, who notices small signs of danger and acts before anyone else sees the threat.
- The FishermanA poor man who hauls a sealed vessel from the sea and must outwit the angry genie inside it.
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- Audiobook
- 12 h 29 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Arabian Nights Entertainments
by Andrew Lang
Scheherazade tells a king stories night after night, leaving each tale unfinished to keep herself alive.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A storyteller bargains for her life
The tales hang on a frame story. A sultan of Persia discovers that his wife has betrayed him, and his grief hardens into cruelty. He decides to marry a new wife each day and to have her put to death the next morning. Soon the kingdom is full of fear, and families flee the city rather than give up their daughters.
The vizier, the king's chief minister, must find the brides, and he has two daughters. The elder is Scheherazade. She is learned, she has read many books of history and poetry, and she has a plan. She asks her father to let her marry the sultan, and he begs her not to. She insists, and in the end he gives way.
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What is The Arabian Nights about?
It is a collection of tales linked by a frame story. Scheherazade tells the sultan a tale each night to delay her execution. The stories include genies, voyages, magic lamps, thieves, and princes.
Who was Scheherazade?
She is the daughter of the sultan's vizier. She volunteers to marry the king, who executes each bride after one night, and she saves herself by telling stories that she leaves unfinished each dawn.
Are Aladdin and Ali Baba really in the original Arabian Nights?
Both tales entered the collection through Antoine Galland's French version in the early 1700s. They are not found in the earliest known Arabic manuscripts, but they became part of the Nights as the world knows them.
The author
Andrew Lang
1844–1912 · Scottish poet and folklorist
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer born in Selkirk in 1844. He lived in London and died in Banchory in 1912. He wrote poetry, novels, literary criticism, and works on folklore. He edited The Blue Fairy Book, published in 1889, and other fairy-book collections, including The Violet Fairy Book in 1901.
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