Oriental Tales and Their Influence

Prof. Warner and Prof. Ballaster begin their conversation with Antoine Galland's translation into French from Arabic of the 'Alf Layla wa-Layla' as the first two volumes of 'Les Mille et Une Nuit' in the first decade of eighteenth century.

The twelve-volume text that became known in the English-speaking world as 'The Arabian Nights Entertainments' was woven together from manuscript and verbal sources as well as added to with apparently invented tales by Antoine Galland himself. Warner and Ballaster open their discussion by considering whether Galland's tales provide a better window on the French salon culture of the early eighteenth century than Islamic empire medieval or modern.

Date Published: 26 March 2013
Source:
Download:
Contributors: Ros Ballaster, Marina Warner
In Collection(s): Oriental fiction, Fantasy Literature: Further Thinking
Keywords: Oriental tale, eighteenth century, Arabian Nights, french salon culture, Antoine Galland, Short stories, Fiction, great writers, great writers inspire, discussion, #greatwriters
Cite: Oriental Tales and Their Influence at https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ via https://dev.writersinspire.it.ox.ac.uk/content/oriental-tales-their-influence. Published on 26 March 2013. Accessed on 15 May 2026.
If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Oriental Tales and Their Influence (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/), licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).