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Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange by Malcolm C. Lyons (2015, Hardcover)

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The first English translation of this spectacular collection of medieval Arab fantasy stories A great cache of ancient, magical stories in the same tradition as The Arabian Nights, Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange is an extraordinary find. Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest-known Arabic short stories, which survived in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights, but most have never been read in English before. Composed to fascinate their original audiences, these charming, surreal, baffling, and beautiful stories are indeed both marvelous and strange.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherPenguin Publishing Group

ISBN-100141395036

ISBN-139780141395036

eBay Product ID (ePID)201630636

Product Key Features

Original LanguageArabic

Book TitleTales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

Number of Pages496 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicClassics, Short Stories (Single Author), Anthologies (Multiple Authors), Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

Publication Year2015

IllustratorBickford-Smith, Coralie, Yes

GenreFiction

AuthorMalcolm C. Lyons

Book SeriesA Penguin Classics Hardcover Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.8 in

Item Weight30.7 Oz

Item Length9.4 in

Item Width6.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2014-472568

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"A revelation-a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself." - Sunday Times "Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible." - The Independent "This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one." - Scotland on Sunday "Instantly appealing [with] headlong narrative drive . . . above all, fun." - The Guardian , "A revelation--a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself." -- Sunday Times "Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible." -- The Independent "This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one." -- Scotland on Sunday "Instantly appealing [with] headlong narrative drive . . . above all, fun." -- The Guardian "Lyons's translation is fluent and entertaining...Coupled with an informative introduction by Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion , this book is a welcome and recommended addition to those who enjoy the Arabian Nights . -- Library Journal, "A revelation-a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself." - Sunday Times, "A revelation-a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself." - Sunday Times "Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible." - The Independent "This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one." - Scotland on Sunday "Instantly appealing [with] headlong narrative drive . . . above all, fun." - The Guardian , Superb translation . . . erudite introduction . . . a revelation - a real classic of popular literature . . . endlessly diverting and inventive, (giving) a unique insight into a now-lost elegant, courtly and tolerant Arab world, "It's hard to imagine shaking off the dust of this thousand-year-old volume of stories (recently discovered in an Istanbul library) and seeing them for the first time. As thoughtful as they are wondrous, these tales run the gamut: epic and domestic, charming and chilling, realistic and magical, with prose like a jewel box. If it looks scholarly at first glance, take heart; by the time God folds up the desert to help a lost heroine find her way across a strange land, this collection will have made itself at home in your imagination." -- NPR , "Guide To 2015's Great Reads" "A revelation--a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself." -- Sunday Times "Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible." -- The Independent "This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one." -- Scotland on Sunday "Instantly appealing [with] headlong narrative drive . . . above all, fun." -- The Guardian "Lyons's translation is fluent and entertaining...Coupled with an informative introduction by Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion , this book is a welcome and recommended addition to those who enjoy the Arabian Nights . -- Library Journal

Grade FromTwelfth Grade

Dewey Decimal892.7/3

SynopsisThe first English translation of this spectacular collection of medieval Arab fantasy stories A great cache of ancient, magical stories in the same tradition as The Arabian Nights , Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange is an extraordinary find. Dating from at least a millennium ago, these are the earliest-known Arabic short stories, which survived in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights , but most have never been read in English before. Composed to fascinate their original audiences, these charming, surreal, baffling, and beautiful stories are indeed both marvelous and strange., On the shrouded corpse hung a tablet of green topaz with the inscription- 'I am Shaddad the Great. I conquered a thousand cities; a thousand white elephants were collected for me; I lived for a thousand years and my kingdom covered both east and west, but when death came to me nothing of all that I had gathered was of any avail. You who see me take heed, for Time is not to be trusted.' Dating from at least a millennium ago, this is the earliest known collection of Arabic stories, surviving in a single, ragged manuscript in a library in Istanbul. Some found their way into The Arabian Nights but most have never been read in English before. Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange has monsters, lost princes, jewels beyond price, a princess turned into a gazelle, sword-wielding statues and shocking reversals of fortune. To read these stories today is an extraordinary experience - they were designed to enchant and delight a society almost fantastically distant from our own and now, centuries later, they can be marvelled at in all their strangeness. 'Superb translation . . . erudite introduction . . . a revelation - a real classic of popular literature . . . endlessly diverting and inventive, (giving) a unique insight into a now-lost elegant, courtly and tolerant Arab world.' William Dalrymple Sunday Times 'Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible.' Independent 'This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one.' Scotland on Sunday 'Instantly appealing (with) headlong narrative drive . . . like a Medieval Fifty Shades of Grey . . . above all, fun.' Guardian

LC Classification NumberPJ7694.E8T35 2014