I may be a little late to the game…. but recently I picked up a copy of the Oxford University Press paperback edition of “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights,” newly interpreted by Geraldine McCaughrean, a highly regarded British author of novels for children.

Of course, like many people I’d seen the various movie versions of “Aladdin,” but I never knew the context in which the story appeared. I had never read any of the originals, which comprise a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of cultural, economic, and scientific progress traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. The title that we use originated with the first English-language edition (c. 1706–1721), published as “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment.”

Over many centuries, the stories were collected by authors, translators, and scholars across North Africa and West, Central and South Asia. Some tales are truly mythical, tracing their roots back to ancient and medieval Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian literature. They are timeless yet familiar in their display of human foibles, and serve as a window into the rich storytelling tradition of the ancient world.

35 Charming Tales, Deftly Interpreted

The framing device—the glue that holds the stories together—is the ruler Shahryār, who is convinced that all women are unfaithful. To avoid being cheated on by his wife, his marriages last only one day. At dawn on the second day, the current wife is beheaded and another one summoned to the marriage bed. But wife Scharazade has a clever plan: Each night she tells Shahryār a story, and hints that another one—equally exciting—will be forthcoming the following night, should he spare her life. The stories proceed from this original premise; some are framed within other tales, while some are self-contained.

This charming volume contains 35 stories, and you can read each one in ten or fifteen minutes. They’re packed with a rogue’s gallery of colorful characters, of course including the fan favorites such as Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and Ala al-Din. But there are others equally enthralling, such as the greedy Fox who gets his comeuppance from the clever Crow, or the Ebony Horse, which has the power to fly anywhere in the world.

The stories are full of cornball humor and playground insults, but they’re served up by McCaughrean with such a deft touch that you can’t help but smile. This is truly a book that transcends normal publishing house marketing demographics and can be enjoyed by anyone who can read.