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hstapp's review against another edition
2.0
I only enjoyed two stories in this book. The first animal tale and the final tale. The first Story is a continuation of most of the last volume and is incredibly long and boring. It was followed by a bevy of animal tales, one of which I enjoyed. The others were okay. Next was a court tale, without point and lacking interest. The final story, which is as yet unfinished, is good. It is a story of two beautiful people, of their brief meeting and instant love for each other, but they are separated and they do not know each others names or their country so despair. It tells of their adventures in coming together once again, but then they are separated once more before being brought together. The latter part about their sons is not nearly as interesting, but is of passable interest.
tiggum's review against another edition
3.0
The middle of this book was pretty good. I liked the animal stories, especially the Wolf and the Fox. But then we went back to the humans and that wasn't so good. It seemed like things were looking up at first, because we had a couple of djinns arguing over who saw the prettiest human, but that bit's just the start of another very long story about a bunch of dumb royals. What is it with these people getting lost and forgetting about their old lives all the time? Some good lines though. And I liked this description of a supposedly incredibly attractive woman:
"Now her hair is like the nights of disunion and separation and her face like the days of union and delectation ... She hath a nose like the edge of the burnished blade and cheeks like purple wine or anemones blood-red: her lips as coral and carnelian shine and the water of her mouth is sweeter than old wine; its taste would quench Hell's fiery pain. Her tongue is moved by wit of high degree and ready repartee: her breast is a seduction to all that see it (glory be to Him who fashioned it and finished it!); and joined thereto are two upper arms smooth and rounded ... She hath breasts like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the moons borrow light, and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth of the finest Egyptian linen made by the Copts, with creases like folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all power of imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would fief stand, and awaken her, when she fain would sleep ... And those back parts are upborne by thighs smooth and round and by a calf like a column of pearl, and all this reposeth upon two feet, narrow, slender and pointed like spear-blades, the handiwork of the Protector and Requiter, I wonder how, of their littleness, they can sustain what is above them."
HER ARSE IS SO SEXY IT PREVENTS HER FROM STANDING OR SLEEPING.
I can't remember if it's the same woman or someone else, but "all who looked on her bepissed their bag-trousers, for the excess of her beauty and loveliness."
I also liked this rhyme in support of anal sex: "'The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it, * Had it been made for cunnus' sake it had been formed like hatchet!'"
And people falling in love from the most superficial of encounters never gets old: 'So he said to Naomi, "Draw back the veil from thy face;" but she would not unveil, and he beheld not her face. However, he saw her wrists and love of her entered his heart'.
"Now her hair is like the nights of disunion and separation and her face like the days of union and delectation ... She hath a nose like the edge of the burnished blade and cheeks like purple wine or anemones blood-red: her lips as coral and carnelian shine and the water of her mouth is sweeter than old wine; its taste would quench Hell's fiery pain. Her tongue is moved by wit of high degree and ready repartee: her breast is a seduction to all that see it (glory be to Him who fashioned it and finished it!); and joined thereto are two upper arms smooth and rounded ... She hath breasts like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the moons borrow light, and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth of the finest Egyptian linen made by the Copts, with creases like folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all power of imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would fief stand, and awaken her, when she fain would sleep ... And those back parts are upborne by thighs smooth and round and by a calf like a column of pearl, and all this reposeth upon two feet, narrow, slender and pointed like spear-blades, the handiwork of the Protector and Requiter, I wonder how, of their littleness, they can sustain what is above them."
HER ARSE IS SO SEXY IT PREVENTS HER FROM STANDING OR SLEEPING.
I can't remember if it's the same woman or someone else, but "all who looked on her bepissed their bag-trousers, for the excess of her beauty and loveliness."
I also liked this rhyme in support of anal sex: "'The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it, * Had it been made for cunnus' sake it had been formed like hatchet!'"
And people falling in love from the most superficial of encounters never gets old: 'So he said to Naomi, "Draw back the veil from thy face;" but she would not unveil, and he beheld not her face. However, he saw her wrists and love of her entered his heart'.
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