Aladdin: A New Translation [Hardcover]

This new translation of the classic tale is, like the lamp at its center, darker, grubbier, and more twisted than its Disneyfied iteration, emphasizing its transgressive qualities.... Seales text has a fluidity and an elegance that give even this diet of dreams, smoke, and visions a satisfying heft.Elegant... Seale is careful to frame her translation with an account of Shahrazad herself, which not only gives it a sense of urgency, but also reminds us that the narrative voice is a female onea fact that other adaptations and translations often miss. This world is one in which a woman can use the gift of story-telling to navigate the power of men. And this framing breathes new life into the female cast of Aladdins story.It's not every day you come across a new translation ofIn her new translation ofYasmine Seale has brought Aladdin back to life: she captures the grace and the strangeness of the version collected and written down by Antoine Galland in the eighteenth century, and has found unexpected riches of fine, sly, parodic humor in a story which has suffered in its long, twisting history from manhandling, truncation, and an excess of pomp and ceremony. This is a fresh, witty, and vigorous retelling.?Hortas contextualizing introduction and Seales straightforward translation have convinced me that the joy can be in the telling, rather than the origins, of this story.... Yasmine Seale makes a tale that is almost too familiar new again in her smooth, dark, exciting interpretation ofYasmine Seales new translation of the classic tale reveals its surprising depth.Seales splendid translation introduces readers to the surprising depth of Aladdins adventures while maintaining a classical feel.... This exhilarating translation will thrill fans of darker, more complex fairy tales and upend readers preconceived image of Aladdin.Yasmine Seale's vivacious prose resurrects a classic folktale that we thought we knew, and animates it with deeper meanings. ThlC˜