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Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

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Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

By: uncredited, Malcolm Lyons - translator
Narrated by: Taheen Modak
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Taheen Modak, best known for The Bay and Two Weeks to Live. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Malcom Lyons.

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, these are the earliest known Arabic short 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.

© Robert Irwin 2014 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Magic Short Stories Royalty

Critic Reviews

Superb, 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)
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
This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one
Instantly appealing (with) headlong narrative drive . . . like a Medieval Fifty Shades of Grey . . . above all, fun
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