the arabian nights in english literature

26 Pages·2015·2.02 MB·English

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE
The Arabian Nights
in English Literature
Studies in the Reception of The
Thousand and One Nights into British
Culture
Edited by
Peter L. Caracciolo
Lecturer in English
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
University of London
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
©Peter L. Caracciolo 1988
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-36693-6
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First published 1988
Published by
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and London
Companies and representatives
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Typeset by Wessex Typesetters
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The Arabian Nights in English literature:
Studies in the reception of The Thousand
and One Nights into British culture.
1. English literature-History and
criticism
I. Caracciolo, Peter L.
820.9 PR83
ISBN 978-1-349-19622-7 ISBN 978-1-349-19620-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19620-3
In memoriam
Allan Grant
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface and Acknowledgements xiii
Notes on the Contributors xxvi
A Note on Orthography xxviii
To Scheherazade GREVEL LINDOP xxix
1 Introduction: 'Such a store house of ingenious
fiction and of splendid imagery' 1
PETER L. CARACCIOLO
2 Scheherazade in the Nursery 81
BRIAN ALDERSON
3 English Travellers and the Arabian Nights 95
FATMA MOUSSA-MAHMOUD
4 The Genie and the Albatross: Coleridge and the
Arabian Nights 111
ALLAN GRANT; notes compiled by DEIRDRE TOOMEY
5 Dickens in Wonderland 130
MICHAEL SLATER
6 Wilkie Collins and the Ladies of Baghdad, or the
Sleeper Awakened 143
PETER L. CARACCIOLO
7 Cayenne and Cream Tarts: W. M. Thackeray and
R. L. Stevenson 178
LEONEE ORMOND
8 The Victorian Scheherazade: Elizabeth Gaskell and
George Meredith 197
CORNELIA COOK
vii
viii Contents
9 The Genie out of the Bottle: Conrad, Wells and
Joyce 218
ROBERT G. HAMPSON
10 'A Lesson for the Circumspect': W. B. Yeats's two
versions of A Vision and the Arabian Nights 244
WARWICK GOULD
11 The King of the Black Islands and the Myth of the
Waste Land 281
JOHN HEATH-STUBBS
The False Caliph ROBERT G. HAMPSON 285
Appendix: W. F. Kirby's 'Comparative Table of the Tales in
the Principal Editions of the Thousand and One Nights'
from the Burton Edition. 289
Index 316
List of Illustrations
Plates
1 'The Lady of the Glass Case', by R. Smirke for the Forster
edition (William Miller, 1802) vol. I
2 (a) 'Sindbad ... on the Whale's back' from The History of
Sindbad the Sailor (E. Newbery, 1784)
(b) Sindbad on 'the Island of Serpents', from The Oriental
Moralist (E. Newbery, c.1791)
3 'Shacabac, the Barber's Sixth Brother', sharing the imaginary
meal with the Barmecide, by R. Smirke for The Adventures of
Hunch-back (William Daniell, 1814)
4 'Transformations', by William Harvey for The Story of the
Second Royal Mendicant' in Lane's translation (1839-41) I, 17~
5 (the page reproduced here is from the single-volume edition,
1853)
5 (a) 'Zobeide prepares to whip the dogs', from The History of
Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, and of Five Ladies of
Bagdad'
(b) 'The journey of Prince Firouz Schah and the Princess of
Bengal', from 'The Story of the Enchanted Horse'
Both these are by A. B. Houghton for Dalziel's Illustrated Nights
(1863-5)
6 'The Transformation of King Beder', Houghton's 1874 water
colour based on his illustration of the tale recounted in the
Dalziel edition
7 'Zobeide discovers the young man reciting the Koran', by]. E.
Millais, for The History of Zobeide' in the Dalziel edition
ix
X List of Illustrations
8 'Sidi Nouman transformed into a Dog', by John Tenniel for the
Dalziel edition
9 'The King saves himself by clinging to a plank', by Gustave
Don~ for 'The Story of the Third Calender' in the Cassell edition
(187~5)
10 'New Crowns for Old Ones', by Tenniel for Punch, 15 April
1876
11 'The Slave of the Ring', by J. D. Batten for More Fairy Tales from
the Arabian Nights (Dent, 1895)
12 'The Giant Enters', by H. J. Ford for Sindbad's Third Voyage
in the Andrew Lang edition (Longman, 1898)
13 'Ali Baba', cover design for 'The Forty Thieves', by Aubrey
Beardsley (1900)
14 'Ali Baba in the Wood', by Aubr~y Beardsley (1900)
15 'The Damsel upset the Pan', by Edmund Dulac for the continu
ation of 'The Fisherman and the Genie' in Stories from the Arabian
Nights, retold by Laurence Housman (Hodder and Stoughton,
1907)
16 'Princess Scheherazade, the heroine of the Thousand-and-one
Nights, ranks among the great storytellers of the world', by
Edmund Dulac for the Boots--Hodder and Stoughton edition
(1932)
In text
1 Emblematic colophon to each volume of every
Burton edition p. xiii
List of Illustrations xi
2 Image of old man prostrate with laughter, from the
Newnes edition (1899) p. 81
3 'Supped once more on one of our companions', by
Don~ for the Cassell edition p. 93
Preface and
Acknowledgements
Originally placed between the half-title and full-title pages of The
Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Richard Burton's celebrated
late-nineteenth-century translation, the black-and-white device
reproduced above at first glance seems to offer little to detain the
reader. Following as it does the magnificently dramatic front cover
(the binding of the 'Library Edition' is particularly impressive, its
black cloth elaborately stamped in gold with a rich synthesis of
Islamic ornament), the device initially may escape notice altogether.
Xlll