"The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" | |
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Short story by Edgar Allan Poe | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Satirical short story |
Publication | |
Published in | Godey's Lady's Book |
Publisher | Louis A. Godey |
Media type | Print (Periodical) |
Publication date | February 1845 |
"The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" is a short-story by American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). It was published in the February 1845 issue of Godey's Lady's Book and was intended as a partly humorous sequel to the celebrated collection of Middle Eastern tales One Thousand and One Nights.[1]
The tale depicts the eighth and final voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story. While the King is uncertain — except in the case of "the earth being upheld by a cow of a blue color, having horns four hundred in number" — that these mysteries are real, they are actual modern events that occurred in various places during, or before, Poe's lifetime. The story ends with the king in such disgust at the outlandish tales Scheherazade has just woven, that he has her executed the next day.
The story first appeared in the February 1845 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.[2] The story was reprinted in the October 25, 1845, issue of The Broadway Journal and in 1850 in the collection Works.[3] It also appeared in the January 1855 Boy’s Own Magazine in London in a condensed version[4] and in the May 1928 Amazing Stories science fiction magazine.[5]