The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories within stories, also known as "frames." One narrator's story contains or frames another narrator's story. The outer or first frame is the story of the King who, in revenge for the infidelity of his first wife, marries a new maiden every night, takes her virginity, and slays her in the morning. This frame contains the second frame of Scheherazade's story. In order to preserve her life, Scheherazade tells a seemingly endless story, and in her story, characters begin to tell their stories (additional frames). The convention of having a narrator tell the story of other narrators telling stories is seen in such works as Dante's Divine Comedy, Boccaccio's Decameron, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
Burton's translation is especially characterized by.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 1,424 words. This
study guide contains 44,490 words (approx. 148 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The Arabian Nights Access Pass.
