Ah, the famous tales of Sheherazade... I've just finished a selection of tales from The Thousand and One Nights, translation courtesy of Sir Richard F. Burton, and the reading was very entertaining, the tales very exotic, somewhat erotic (for the times, it was published in 1857).
- King Sharyar and his brother: The two kings were both betrayed by their wives, who prefer to have sex with blackamoor slaves... As a consequence, King Sharyar marries a new young and beautiful virgin everyday, and has her killed right after the first night. That is until he marries the daughter of his vizier, Sheherazade, who comes up with stories so gripping that the king cannot slay her or he'll never know the end... The following stories are then all recounted by Sheherazade
- The Tale of the Merchant and the Jinnee: more tales about unfaithful wives and black slaves (women are a bit too often portrayed as such)
- The Fisherman and the Jinnee
- The Ebony Horse: a tale about a wooden horse that can fly.
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves: The famous one. I did not know that in the original tale, it's not Ali Baba that overcomes the 40 thieves, but one of his servant women.
- Aladdin and the Magic Lamp: Since the only version I had of the story is that of Disney, I was surprised to notice that there was so much differences, the biggest one being that Aladdin is not a nice & poor little thief but a thankless and renegade son who feeds off his parents. He gets the lamp by chance and is not granted 3 wishes but as many as he wishes...
- Julnar the Mermaid and her son Badar Basim of Persia: a long story about alliances between people of the sea and of the earth
- The Tale about the thief of Alexandria and the Chief of Police: a short one with a morale
- Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma: a tale where a princess refuses and humiliates men who do not match her in the joust and who is humiliated (and taken) in revenge
- The Tale of the three apples
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