The Arabian Nights

'The man who seemed to he the captain presently pushed forward, load on shoulder, through thorns and thickets, till he came up to a certain spot, where he uttered these strange words: "Open, Sesame!"'
- From Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

In the tantalising, exuberant and endlessly inventive tales that make up The Arabian Nights, the magical art of storytelling has never been more powerfully demonstrated. Here are some of fiction's most famous characters – Ala al-Din (Aladdin), Ali Baba and Sindbad – in a marvellous world of all-powerful sultans and seductive princesses, incredible jewels and fabulous beasts. Fairy tales, fables, erotica, riddles, bawdy comedy, mystical encounters; The Arabian Nights draws the reader into a labyrinth of stories, which, like Russian dolls, contain ever more stories.

This is a world where anything is possible – young women are changed into dogs, young men turned half to stone, the earth opens and swallows the unwary, spells and potions make dreams come true or bring disaster, and demons and fairies appear from nowhere to determine an individual's destiny by capricious whim.