How does the history of any given event come to be written in a certain way? A story can be told from many points of view. The significance that the event is deemed to hold may vary. Subsequent events will throw new light and alter its significance for some. Thus radically different versions of an event compete for attention. Often one particular version holds the field drowning out its rivals. This intellectual hegemony need have no relation to the accuracy of that version of history and alternative, equally valid versions can sink without trace.
Added by: susan6th | Karma: 3133.45 | Fiction literature | 12 August 2010
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In the late 1920s, the art publisher H. Piazza produced a twelve-volume version of The 1001 Nights that was one of the most beautiful ever made. It included splendid illustrations by Mohammed Racim and wonderful miniatures by painter Leon Carre. Today, Assouline is publishing an abridged version of this masterpiece, which includes the most famous and most enchanting of the tales, from the story of King Shahryar, to the story of Sinbad the sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, or Aladdin and the magic lamp… all told by the beautiful and sensual Shahrazad.
