Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

Malcolm Lyons (translation)
Paperback, 496 pages
9780241299951

 

A Medieval Arab Fantasy Collection

 

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.