Project Gutenberg's The Arabian Nights Entertainments, by Anonymous

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Title: The Arabian Nights Entertainments

Author: Anonymous

Illustrator: Milo Winter

Release Date: November 18, 2006 [EBook #19860]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: _The genie immediately returned with a tray bearing
dishes of the most delicious viands. Page 168._]

THE WINDERMERE SERIES

The Arabian Nights
Entertainments

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

MILO WINTER

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY

CHICAGO NEW YORK

_Copyright, 1914, by_

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY

* * * * *

THE INTRODUCTION

The _Arabian Nights_ was introduced to Europe in a French translation
by Antoine Galland in 1704, and rapidly attained a unique popularity.
There are even accounts of the translator being roused from sleep by
bands of young men under his windows in Paris, importuning him to tell
them another story.

The learned world at first refused to believe that M. Galland had not
invented the tales. But he had really discovered an Arabic manuscript
from sixteenth-century Egypt, and had consulted Oriental
story-tellers. In spite of inaccuracies and loss of color, his twelve
volumes long remained classic in France, and formed the basis of our
popular translations.

A more accurate version, corrected from the Arabic, with a style
admirably direct, easy, and simple, was published by Dr. Jonathan
Scott in 1811. This is the text of the present edition.

The Moslems delight in stories, but are generally ashamed to show a
literary interest in fiction. Hence the world's most delightful story
book has come to us with but scant indications of its origin. Critical
scholarship,