WORLD TALES

Idries Shah

Octagon Press, London, 1991

No ordinary collection of tales, this anthology was the result of extensive research that lead Shah to conclude that there is a certain basic fund of human fictions, which recur again and again throughout the world and never seem to lose their compelling attraction. In this fascinating collection, Idries Shah shares this insight with us as we read the astonishingly similar versions of tales as they developed throughout the world.

This special paperback version of World Tales concentrates on the essentials, the text of the stories, and omits the illustrations which were part of a previous edition.

We find the Algonquin version of Cinderella; we wonder how the story of Aladdin and the Lamp was found in Wales, and then, perhaps, taken to the East where we now know it.'
--Robert Ornstein