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New Arabian Nights

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Category: Stevenson, Robert Louis

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 One Thousand and One 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.

New Arabian Nights is divided into two volumes.

The first volume contains seven stories originally called Later-day Arabian Nights and published by London Magazine in serial format from June to October 1878. It is composed of two story groups, or cycles:

1. The Suicide Club
2. The Rajah's Diamond

The second volume is a collection of four unconnected (standalone) stories that were previously published in magazines:

1. The Pavilion on the Links (1880), told in 9 mini-chapters
2. A Lodging for the Night (1877)
3. The Sire De Malétroits Door (1877)
4. Providence and the Guitar (1878)

A Lodging for the Night was Stevenson's first ever published fiction. In 1890 Arthur Conan Doyle characterized The Pavilion on the Links as "the high-water mark of Stevenson's genius" and "the first short-story in the world". Barry Menikoff (1987) considers New Arabian Nights to be the starting point in the history of the English short story.

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