In this final episode of Arabian Nights Tales, Rhea and Shari discuss O. Henry’s short story, “A Madison Square Arabian Night.” They talk about all the ways this story conjures the Arabian Nights atmosphere through word play, character development, metaphor, mystery, and—inverted sentence structure…?? Rhea talks about how this story compares in style to O. Henry’s other short stories, and Shari forgets she’s ever read anything by O. Henry—to include one of his most well-known works (which she owns, even!): The Gift of the Magi. And, they end their discussion with a unexpected wading into sacramental theology and how it shows up here in “A Madison Square Arabian Night.”

If you don’t have The Annotated Arabian Nights translation we’ve been reading from, you can read O. Henry’s short story here.

Next week, Shari and Rhea begin a month long deep reading of Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. The reading schedule will be:

* Oct 8th: pp 1-88

* Oct 15th: pp 89-176

* Oct 22nd: pp 177-262

* Oct 29th: pp 263-end

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