Aladdin

Seale’s splendid translation introduces readers to the surprising depth of Aladdin’s adventures while maintaining a classical feel. A malevolent North African magician travelling in China lures lazy, impoverished Aladdin into retrieving a magic lamp. The magician leaves Aladdin for dead, but he wishes himself home and discovers the lamp holds a wish-granting jinni who conjures food for him and his mother to eat and silver trays for them to sell. Later, Aladdin furtively ogles the undressed sultan’s daughter, Princess Badr al-Budur, and falls in love. He sends his mother to offer an exorbitant gift of jewels from the lamp’s cave in exchange for permission to wed, but the sultan agrees to marry the princess to the grand vizier’s son instead. Aladdin makes increasingly dubious decisions as he disrupts the princess’s wedding night by wishing the couple into his house and humiliating the groom. After the pair’s dissolution, the jinni creates a sumptuous palace and untold wealth for Aladdin and the princess’s happy marriage until the magician’s return leads to a climax full of scheming and magic. This exhilarating translation will thrill fans of darker, more complex fairy tales and upend readers’ preconceived image of Aladdin. (Nov.)