Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!packard!ihnp1!ihnp4!drutx!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.books Subject: re: story cycles Message-ID: <6599@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 04:46:40 EDT Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.6599 Posted: Sat Aug 17 04:46:40 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 20:11:16 EDT References: <3600@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 50 Xref: linus net.sf-lovers:8500 net.books:2102 > Good heavens! We can't forget Canterbury Tales. Having moved from stories told in a bar to "The Canterbury Tales", we might as well go on one step further and deal with story cycles. The two best known, other than Chaucer, are Boccaccio's "Decameron" and "The Arabian Nights". The idea behind these works is that, for some reason, characters start telling stories to one another. In "The Decameron", the stories are told as entertainment while some folks are waiting out a plague in a closed estate. In "The Arabian Nights", of course, the stories are (mostly) told by Scheherazade, in her attempt to forstall her death. The latter is more interesting to fantasy lovers, as it recounts many fantastic tales. It is also more interesting to computer scientists, for it has a lovely recursive structure, in which stories are told within stories within stories. If your only exposure to "The Arabian Nights" has been through children's versions, you're in for a treat, as the children's editions trash the basic structure, remove all sex and bawdiness (and there's a lot), and, since they were largely written for Europeans, cut all the stories in which Christians appear as villains. Among other things, this last loses a fantastic extended epic about the Crusades, told from a Moslem perspective, for a change. Uncut editions of "The Arabian Nights" are expensive (they run to several volumes) and can sometimes be hard to find. (Other times Publisher's Clearinghouse is trying to unload them.) If the full version is unavailable or too daunting in size, there is a portable version which includes many stories and summarizes the rest. It's known as "The Portable Arabian Nights", I think, and is put out by the same people who do "The Portable Faulkner", "The Portable Poe", etc. On a truly obscure note, there is another story cycle known as "The Saragossa Manuscript". It was written in the early 19th century by a Polish count named Potocki, and deals with the adventures of an impoverished but proud young nobleman making his way across a deserted part of Spain in order to take up a commission in the Spanish army. The structure is like that of "The Arabian Nights", but has an additional twist: not only are stories contained within stories, many levels deep, but stories on different levels start interacting. The first part is of more interest to fantasy lovers, but the latter half contains a fine set of semi-comic adventures. Unfor- tunately, Potocki cops out at the very end. "The Saragossa Manuscript" is very hard to get hold of, in my experience. The only English language edition I know of is in two parts, "The New Decameron" and "The Saragossa Manuscript", both published in the mid sixties. Major libraries may have copies, and any library can probably track one down for you if you expend enough effort. The Research Library at UCLA has the only copies I have ever seen. For those who read Polish, it can likely be found at a good Polish bookstore (wherever those are), as I understand that Poles are rather proud of the book. There is also an excellent film version of "The Saragossa Manuscript", in Polish and infrequently shown, but none the less one of my favorite movies. -- Peter Reiher reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher