New Arabian Nights

New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1882, is a collection of short stories previously published in magazines between 1877 and 1880. The collection contains Stevenson''s first published fiction, and a few of the stories are considered by some critics to be his best work, as well as pioneering works in the English short story tradition. The title is an allusion to the collection of tales known as the 1001 Arabian Nights, which Stevenson had read and liked. Although Stevenson''s stories were set in modern Europe, he was stylistically drawing a connection to the nested structure of the Arabian tales. Two eagerly awaited translations of the Arabian Nights, by Richard F. Burton and John Payne, were in the works in the late 1870s and early 1880s, further helping to draw popular attention to Stevenson''s "New" title. Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Intuitive navigation. . Text annotation and mark-up. .