''The Tales of the Genii: or, the Delightful Lessons of Horam, The Son of Asmar'' is a
collection
Collection or Collections may refer to:
* Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department
* Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service
* Collection agency, agency to collect cash
* Collectio ...
by the English author
James Ridley
James Kenneth Ridley (1736–1765) was an English author educated at University College, Oxford. He served as a chaplain with the British Army. He is best known for a volume of imitation Orientalia.
Writings
Ridley wrote two novels: ''The Histo ...
, consisting of
Oriental
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
pastiche
fantasy tales
Tales may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Tales'' (album), a 1995 album by Marcus Miller
* ''Tales'' (film), a 2014 Iranian film
* ''Tales'' (TV series), an American television series
* ''Tales'' (video game), a 2016 point-and-click adventure ...
modeled on those of the ''
Arabian Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
''. The work was originally passed off as an authentic work by a Persian
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
named Horam translated into English by "Sir Charles Morell, formerly ambassador from the British Settlements in India to the Great Mogul" and published by an anonymous "editor." It is the work for which Ridley is chiefly remembered.
[Seccombe, Thomas. ]
The work was first issued in shilling parts, with the full work published in two volumes in London in
1764
1764 ( MDCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday and is the fifth year of the 1760s decade, the 64th year of the 18th century, and the 764th year of the 2nd millennium.
Events
January–June
* January 7 – The Siculicidium is ...
. Further editions appeared in 1780, 1794, 1800, 1805, 1814, 1849, and 1861, the last two selected, revised, "purified and remodelled" by
Archbishop Whately
Richard Whately (1 February 1787 – 8 October 1863) was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as a reforming Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland), Church of Ireland Archbishop of ...
"with a view of developing a religious moral." Whately's reworking has been judged "far inferior." The book was translated into German in 1765-66, and French in 1766.
Summary
The book consists of a dedicatory statement and an introductory note, both by an anonymous editor, a fictitious biography of its supposed author by the supposed translator, and the nine tales of the work itself, most of them subdivided into several parts. The editor, author and translator are all fictitious personas of the actual author.
Contents
Volume I.
*To His Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales.
*The Editor to the Reader.
*The Life of Horam, the Son of Asmar. Written by Sir Charles Morell.
*The History of the Merchant Abudah; or, The Talisman of Oromanes. Tale the First.
**The Merchant Abudah's Adventure in the Valley of Bocchim.
**The Second Adventure of the Merchant Abudah in the Groves of Shadaski.
**The Merchant Abudah's Third Adventure in the Kingdom of Tasgi.
**The Merchant Abudah's Fourth Adventure Among the Sages of Nema.
*The Dervise Alfouran. Tale the Second.
**The Continuation of the Tale of the Dervise Alfouran.
*Hassan Assar, or the History of the Caliph of Bagdat. Tale the Third.
*Kelaun and Guzzarat. Tale the Fourth.
**The Continuation of the Tale of Kelaun and Guzzarat.
*The Adventures of Urad; or the Fair Wanderer. Tale the Fifth.
*The Inchanters; or Mishnar, the Sultan of India. Tale the Sixth.
**The Continuation of the Tale of the Inchanters; or Mishnar, the Sultan of the East.
**The History of Mahoud.
**The Continuation of the Tale of the Inchanters; or Mishnar, the Sultan of the East.
Volume II.
**The Continuation of the Tale of the Inchanters; or Misnar, the Sultan of the East.
*The History of the Princess of Cassimir. Tale the Seventh.
**The Continuation of the Tale of the Princess of Cassimir.
*Sadak and Kalasrade. Tale the Eighth.
**The Continuation of the Tale of Sadak and Kalasrade.
**The Continuation of the Tale of Sadak and Kalasrade.
*Mirglip, the Persian; or, Fincal, the Dervise of the Groves. Tale the Ninth.
**The Continuation of the Tale of Mirglip, the Persian; or, Fincal, the Dervise of the Groves.
Reception
In own time and after, Ridley's book was popular, and was compared to
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
's ''
Rasselas''.
Thomas Seccombe
Thomas Seccombe (1866–1923) was a miscellaneous English writer and, from 1891 to 1901, assistant editor of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', in which he wrote over 700 entries. A son of physician and episcopus vagans John Thomas Se ...
calls "the stories ... good in themselves; they are interspersed with some satire upon the professions of so-called Christians; and, for the rest, are skilfully modelled upon the 'Arabian Nights'."
Influence
John Beer, in the introduction to the 1975 Everyman edition of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ''Poems'' (p. vi), notes the influence of several of Ridley's tales on
''Kubla Khan''.
John Martin John Martin may refer to:
Business
*John Martin (businessman) (1820–1905), American lumberman and flour miller
*John Charles Martin (fl. 1913–1931), American newspaper publisher
*John Martin (publisher) (born 1930), American founder of Black ...
's painting ''
Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion'' (1812) is based on the eighth tale.
[Christopher John Murray, ''The Encyclopedia of Romantic Art, 1760–1850'', New York, Taylor & Francis, 2004; p. 977.]
Seccombe notes of Ridley's tales that "
eir popularity among children outlasted the eighteenth century," as attested by ''Misnar'', a juvenile play written by
Charles Dickens based on the sixth tale about 1822.
As late as 1970 editor
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. L ...
included the first tale in his pioneering anthology of classic fantasy ''
Golden Cities, Far'', twenty-second volume in the ''
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series''.
Notes
References
*
* Backscheider, Paula R., and Catherine Ingrassia, eds. ''A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Culture''. London, Blackwell, 2005.
*
Ballaster, Rosalind. ''Fables of the East: Selected Tales 1662–1785''. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.
External links
* The Tales of the Genii. London. 5th edition, 1786
Vol. 1Vol. 2
(Hathi Trust)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tales of the Genii, The
1764 short story collections
Fantasy short story collections