Historian and critic Marina Warner's Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights is a multi-faceted study of the popular tales of wonder and magic known as the Arabian Nights. In discussing these stories, she adopts the interdisciplinary approach that she used so effectively in her earlier study of Western fairy tales, From the Beast to the Blonde, examining them through the lenses of literary criticism, history, folklore studies, feminist theory and popular culture. She pays particular attention to the history of the Arabian Nights in Western culture, from the reception of the first translation from the Arabic by Antoine Galland in the 18th century through its subsequent influence in works as distinct as Mozart's operas and the Harry Potter books.
Not assuming that readers will have the same familiarity with "The Prince of the Black Islands" as they do with "Sleeping Beauty," Warner retells 15 tales before unraveling their constituent themes, symbols and assumptions. She moves easily from the biblical story of King Solomon to magic carpets, from the reputation of Egypt as the home of ancient magic to Sir Isaac Newton's alchemical experiments, or from the wealth of the 12th-century Islamic world to post-Reformation anxiety about Catholic religious practices.
Throughout, Warner succeeds in balancing entertainment with erudition. Like her earlier works, Stranger Magic is accessible enough for the general reader and rich enough to keep a specialist scribbling in the margins. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins