Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange
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  • Published: 6 October 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241299951
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $32.99

Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

Formats & editions
EBook
6 Nov 2014
Audiobook
1 Apr 2021
Paperback
6 Oct 2016
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A great cache of ancient, magical stories in the same tradition as The Arabian Nights

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.
  • Published: 6 October 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241299951
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $32.99
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Praise for Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

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, Sunday Times

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

Independent

This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one

Scotland on Sunday

Instantly appealing (with) headlong narrative drive . . . like a Medieval Fifty Shades of Grey . . . above all, fun

Guardian
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