One Thousand and One Nights: The Complete Collection is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales complied during the Islamic Golden Age. The first English language edition was published in 1706, and many of these stories have gone on to become well-loved additions to books of fairy tales. From tales of magic to stories of adventure, every human emotion and action are contained among these stories. There are tales of lust, betrayal, greed and every sin imaginable as well as tales that illustrate forgiveness, morality and, at times, revenge.

I opened the book and read the first story well over a year ago, and have been dipping in and out of the book ever since. Taking my time with the reading kept me from being overloaded and the tales remained fresh. I was surprised at the variety of stories as well as how many stories within stories there were. A word of caution however, these stories, as printed, are not children’s stories, they have adult content and a high level of violence.

The Thousand and One Nights has been translated into many different volumes and has evolved into the classic it is considered to be today. Personally, I found that this was an excellent way to absorb middle eastern culture as well as giving me a panoramic view of human behavior both good and bad. ( )