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Post by lemming13 on Jan 3, 2011 12:37:05 GMT
I wasn't sure where to put this one - Rabbi Iliowizi was born In Russia, collected most of his stories in North Africa, and published them in the US. I think this is as good a place as any. The collection I have come across is The Weird Orient, published in 1900 in Philadelphia by Henry T Coates & Co. I have a full contents list (this one actually has an intact contents page), but I've only read two so far, so I'll add on summaries as I go. Be warned, the style is very, very florid, real Arabian Nights stuff, and be careful of the version if you go looking online - at least two I've found have been rather messed up, with terrible typos, and footnotes stuck in in the middle of sentences. Haven't found any with the illustrations intact, either, but I bet someone on this board can... It is available on horrormasters, I believe. 1: The Doom of Al Zameri A version of the Wandering Jew story that allegedly predates the Christian version. A man on the run from assassins hired by political foes meets up during a sandstorm with the cursed wanderer, who explains he was afflicted this way because it was he who created the Golden Calf, and he must wander till the Jewish race regards gold with aversion. 2: Sheddad's Palace of Irem A ruler with power over djinni takes on his father's plan to build a truly stupendous palace, in spite of daddy's demise when he accidentally summoned the wrong kind of djinni; his palace is truly magnificent, but the consequences of his inordinate pride are terrible. A slightly different version of the story given in the Koran. 3: The Mystery of the Damavant The Persian poet Firdausi, on the run after offending a ruler, is given a drug-induced vision of a trip to the moon and other wonders, by a fruity old hermit living in a cave up a mountain. 4: The Gods In Exile A fairly amusing piece in which the gods of Asgard (which has been transplanted to the polar regions to avoid those dratted monotheists) find the gods of Olympus moving in next door (having been ousted from North America by the arrival of the Europeans) and making unwelcome changes to the environment. 5: King Solomon and Ashmodai A familiar fable in which King Solomon allows a demon to trick him out of his magical ring, and is promptly usurped and hurled out of his kingdom by a magical doppelganger. 6: The Croesus of Yemen A fable which manages to combine elements of several familiar stories. A wealthy Jew living in Yemen finds himself pauperised by the machinations of the ruler and his vizier. He is offered a vision of monumental wealth, but to claim it must break the Sabbath laws. 7: The Fate of Arzemia A story of the end of the pre-Islamic Persian empire. The ruler consults three fortune tellers on the birth of his daughter, to see what will come from her arrival, and receives apparently conflicting accounts. But all seem to agree, her birth foretells doom... 8: The Student of Timbuktu A student trying to become a wizard (and nothing like Harry Potter) finds a fortune and his long-lost mother. 9: A Night By the Dead Sea A fairytale of a notorious bandit and his son, whom he wants to follow him into the business but who not only does not know who his father really is - he hates everything the legendary bandit stands for.
So, all finished, and if you like your tales gaudy and moralistic, this is a reasonably good (if a bit windy) collection of fairytales for older readers.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 3, 2011 15:07:21 GMT
Looks like something I would dearly like to have
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Post by lemming13 on Jan 6, 2011 12:50:38 GMT
Only if you can stand reams of descriptions of awe-inspiring palaces built of solidified angel snot and girls so lovely they sweat rose-water... Actually they're not that bad, but a bit too overblown for my tastes. Still...
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