Tales from the Arabian Nights

Tales from the Arabian Nights is one of the oldest continuously circulated collections of shorts stories in the world. It consists of well-known Arabic folk tales penned during the Islamic Golden Age, including “Aladdin’s Lamp,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” “The Three Apples,” “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor,” and many more. Since their origins they have inspired countless adaptations, most notably the Disney film Aladdin.

The stories begin with one of the earliest female protagonists in literature, Scheherazade, who is set to be executed by an evil Arabian king. The book highlights the incredible adventure stories she tells to the king each night, and how she purposefully ends them on cliffhangers in order to peak his interest and survive the next morning. These exciting tales, with their languid prose and wild adventures, form the basis of the book and its narrative arc.

Accompanying these timeless short stories are stunning, vintage illustrations by renowned artist Milo Winter, only enhancing their glow and adding to their magic.

Milo Winter was born in Princeton, Illinois and trained at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute. He is best known for his illustrations of classic children's literature such as editions of Aesop's Fables, Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, and Gulliver's Travels. From 1947 to 1949, he was the art editor of Childcraft books and later was the art editor in the film strip division of Silver Burdett Company. He lived in Chicago until the early 1950s, when he moved to New York City.