Tales of a Thousand and One Nights. Nights 357–407

4 hrs. 17 min.

Classics

Language Russian

Narrator Alexander Klyukvin

Description

The gatherings of fairy tales called “One Thousand and One Nights,” which medieval Arab writers mention only sparingly, unfortunately have not survived to our days. We can only assume that, judging by their composition, these collections most likely differed from one another, sharing only the title and the frame tale. The first “suppliers” of their material were professional folk storytellers, whose stories were initially recorded, at dictation, with nearly shorthand accuracy, without any literary editing. Later, these records were passed on to booksellers, who subjected the fairy-tale text to some literary treatment. Each tale at this stage was considered not as part of a collection, but as an entirely independent work.