Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights by Anonymous

10 reviews

lindseyhall44's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Abandonment, Death, Racial slurs, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Child death, Classism, Animal death, Infidelity, Blood, Violence, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

4.0

The Annotated Arabian Nights represents a of selection of folktales from what is (without the orientalist moniker) properly titled the One Thousand and One Nights, giving a sample of a newer contemporary translation by Yasmine Seale alongside analysis. 

Although this book does not quite reflect Seale’s thinking on the Nights, her translation is engaging and clear in attention to cadence, rhyme, especially verse, and the voice of Shahrazad. While, like her visual poem “Sleepless” of Shahrazad’s waking eye, illuminating texts for modern audiences and up out of previous liberties taken by many. A labor sure to produce something glorious when that edition arrives in full. In the time being, the Annotated Arabian Nights is an immense book more suited to coffee tables and academic interest.

See an in-depth review on my blog. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Death, Violence, Sexual content, Infidelity, Alcohol, Racism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Incest, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Miscarriage, Infertility, Animal death, and Antisemitism

Dalila the Crafty includes drugging men and stealing their clothes.

carefulfearanddeaddevotion's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 some of the stories were repetitive or dragged on for too long, but mostly captivating and oftentimes funny

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Torture, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Slavery, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty

irmgardk's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Antisemitism

displacedcactus's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Do you have fond memories of reading some version of Arabian Nights as a child? Are you a nerd? Do you think that more books should be at least as big as a dictionary? Then you owe it to yourself to pick up this awesome edition of Arabian Nights.

In addition to the stories you know and love, this book has an extensive introduction and afterward, lots of annotations (as you would expect from the title...) and a ton of artwork from previous illustrated editions, artists from the MENAHT region, stage and film productions, artifacts, etc etc.

No, this isn't the sort of book you can easily throw in your bag to go to the coffee shop or beach, but it's an entertaining-yet-scholarly read that rewards you for being willing to bear the weight of its 700+ pages and hardback cover.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Sexism, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

ne0juns's review

adventurous dark relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Gore, Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Misogyny

leguinstan's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, and Ableism

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Slavery

lightningsews's review against another edition

The translator used racist stereotypes for the "villains" in each of the story and the Barnes and Noble editors did not give any reason as to why they chose this translation for the Barnes and Noble and why they chose not to edit any of these harmful descriptions. It was especially bad in the Aladdin story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

kake's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

3.75

I must admit this was a bit of a slog in the middle part. Many aspects of the stories are somewhat repetitive, and there’s only so much heterosexual longing a person can take (there’s one story where literally the only things that happen are: man and woman see each other and fall instantly in love, man and woman hang out together twice, man and woman die of love because they can’t be together). It picks up toward the end though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Ableism, and Domestic abuse

More specifics on the racism: there’s an awful lot of anti-blackness in the plots of these stories.