The Arabian Nights: Introduction

The story of Scheherazade, weaving tales to save her life, is as famous as the stories she tells the murderous Sultan, and has been used as a model by dozens of other writers, such as Stephen King in his novel Misery. But why did Shahriar decide to marry a new girl every evening, and have them killed the next morning? And how did Scheherazade trick him into letting her begin her storytelling marathon? Allow yourself to be taken in by the opening tale of "The Arabian Nights", the first of the 34 tales in the classic Arabian Nights collection, translated by Andrew Lang.