Read and listen to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
About the book
"A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night" by Richard F. Burton is a comprehensive collection of Middle Eastern folk tales that dates back to the late 19th century. This volume offers an unabridged version of the classic "Arabian Nights," aiming to provide readers with a faithful rendering of the original texts, complete with poetic elements and rich cultural details. The general theme revolves around enchanting stories filled with adventure, romance, and moral lessons, notably featuring the iconic character of Scheherazade, who narrates these tales to captivate and ultimately save her life from the wrath of King Shahryar. At the start of the work, we are introduced to the story of King Shahryar and his brother, King Shah Zaman. After engaging in a royal hunt, Shahryar yearns to reunite with his brother and sends a Wazir to invite him. However, upon returning to his palace, Shah Zaman discovers his wife in an act of infidelity. This betrayal leads him to share his grief with Shahryar, who is similarly shocked when he realizes that women are untrustworthy. In fury, he vows to marry a new woman each night only to have her killed by dawn. This sets the stage for the introduction of Shahrazad, who proposes to marry the king and thus begins her tale of survival through storytelling, reflecting the themes of fate, treachery, and the complexities of relationships.
Continue by ear
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10) is in the public domain, so its text can be read in Gutenvox. The app provides transparent on-device synthetic narration, not a human audiobook recording, and can highlight spoken words on the page while keeping your place between reading and listening.
- Get the free Gutenvox app for iPhone and iPad.
- Search “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)” and save it to your shelf.
- Read without a narration subscription. Narration starts with a seven-day unlimited trial and then includes 20 free minutes per day; optional paid plans remove the narration cap.