Arabian Nights

'For,' said he, 'there never was nor is there one chaste woman upon the face of earth.'

A newlywed Arabian queen avoids execution by keeping her mistrusting king entertained with her stories. By never finishing a story on the night she begins telling is the keeps him on tenterhooks and by the time she has run out of tales, the king has learnt to love and trust her, so her life is spared. Sir Richard Burton's translation of Arabian Nights is the most well-known and complete collection of these 9th-century Arabic tales of tragedy, love, erotica, comedy and fable.