• The Arabian Nights Entertainments

  • By: Louis Rhead
  • Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
  • Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (536 ratings)

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The Arabian Nights Entertainments  By  cover art

The Arabian Nights Entertainments

By: Louis Rhead
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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Publisher's summary

The central core of the stories concerns a Persian king and his new bride. The king has a brother who is a vizier in faraway Samarcand, and he invites him to come to the palace for a visit. Just before his departure, the vizier is shocked to discover his wife's infidelity. Enraged, he kills her. Full of pain and grief, the vizier continues on to the court of his brother, the king. But, once arrived at his brother's palace, the vizier soon discovers the king's wife is also involved in an even more flagrant infidelity, which he reluctantly reports to him.

The maddened king, Shahryar, then kills his wife, too. The distrustful king next decides to marry an endless succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning before she has a chance to dishonor him. Weeks go by. Eventually, Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride. She is convinced she knows how to stop the slaughter. Her father reluctantly agrees to the marriage.

On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. And so it goes on for 1,001 nights....

Listen as the fabulous tales of Alladin, Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many others sweep you away to the Golden Age of Islam.

Public Domain (P)2013 Audio Connoisseur

What listeners say about The Arabian Nights Entertainments

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A PLEASURE NOT TO BE HURRIED

What made the experience of listening to The Arabian Nights Entertainments the most enjoyable?

This is first Audible selection I have encountered that was narrated too fast to be understandable. I slowed it down to .75X with the app control and it was ideal! The narrator's voice was rich and and seemed an ideal fit for the material, considering the elements of magic and mystery in these classic tales.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Includes stories absent from other versions

Any additional comments?

The reading may be on the speedy side, which does mean you need to pay closer attention than normal, but you get used to it.

The good news is that the longer duration and faster reading means a greater number of stories than other versions available on audible.com (including some not present in the original Arabian Nights such as Aladdin and Ali Baba). I'm happy to deal with a swift reading in exchange for extra stories, and apart from the swiftness the reading is excellent.

My only complaint is that the translation seems to abridge things a bit more than some versions.

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24 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Superspeed reader

The stories of the Arabian Nights are very different than what Americans grew up listening to, but they really are wonderful.
Since the concepts and stories are so unusual to us, this book should be read at a nice even speed with emphasis in the proper places.
Instead, the reader just blows through the book and it is extremely hard to follow what on earth is going on. I slowed the playback and it was a little more tolerable, but still not so good. Had I not read this book more than once as a teenager, I don't think I would have gotten through 5 minutes.
I ended up giving up half way through the book.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Needed female storyteller.

It was a great story and he did a good job narrating it, but since the main character is a woman telling stories to her husband, it would have been easier to enter into the story if it were a female narrator.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Must Have

No library is complete without it, and this is an entertaining version. The narrator speaks in a British accent, and he does a good job. Complete with cheesy sound effects as the stories transistion.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

PERFECT IN EVERY WAY

Any additional comments?

This will make you want to read it to your kids affecting Charlton Griffins every manner, but this cannot be done.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A really enjoyable story

Charlton Griffin did us a huge favor and immersed the reader in one of the most underrated epic tales of all time. There are a couple stories missing from this telling, but Louis Rhead still brought us an enjoyable take on the dozens of stories that make up the Arabian Nights.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Well Done

Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba, they're all here, and the other tales are equal, if not better; in particular the stories of The Barber.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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really enjoyed it

I really enjoyed this- first time "reading" this classic. I enjoyed the narrator's voice and tone. I didn't have the feeling of rushing as others did but I do listen to a lot of audiobooks so maybe I'm used to the pace. I'm definitely giving this another listen!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better than any modern products

You may think you know these stories from their counterparts produced by Disney and other film companies.

But the originals are MUCH better!

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