This is not one book but many, a selection of stories from that great classic "The Thousand and One Nights"—stories the young Shahrazad told her Bluebeard Sultan. There are short tales, and long ones, sad stories, and gay—a whole literature that reflects the varied life of the medieval Arab people—tales of wonder and magnificence.

This version of these famous stories has been made from a direct translation by Edward William Lane, the great Arab scholar, in order to give children a closer contact and deeper feeling for the words and phrases of a great civilization of the past. Padraic Colum has shortened the original tales of some incidents and descriptions, and presents in this collection a wonder story that has fascinated generations of readers.

From the dust jacket of The Macmillan Company edition illustrated by Lynd Ward