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the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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List of Tales
Story of the Camel-Driver
Story of the Greek Slave
Story of the Monk
Story of the Monk (continued)
Huckaback
Manuscript of the Monk
Third Voyage of Huckaback
Fourth Voyage of Huckaback
Fifth Voyage of Huckaback
Sixth Voyage of Huckaback
The Last Voyage of Huckaback
The Scarred Lover
The Story of Hudusi
Tale of the English Sailor
The Water-Carrier
The Wondrous Tale of Han
Story of the Old Woman
Prefatory Note
The Pacha of Many Tales, as indeed its title suggests, is constructed indirect imitation of the Arabian Nights. A Pacha of olden days,enchanted by the stories of Schezehezerade, becomes emulous of the greatHaroun, and determines to procure his own stock of entertainment. By theassistance of a wily barber-vizier he succeeds in the attempt, andlistens with greedy credulity to the marvellous histories herein setforth.
On one occasion an English sailor is dragged into the august presence,and demands, with all the dogged independence of his race, the reasonsfor such treatment.
"You must tell lies, and you will have gold," replies the vizier.
"Tell lies," says Jack Tar, "that is, spin yarns. Well, I can do that."
The volume before us could not be more suggestively described. It is acollection of admirable short stories of intrigue and adventure,traveller's wonders narrated with a perfect air of good faith and noregard for truth or probability. All the countries on the globe, andmany existing only in the imagination, are called into requisition toproduce a brilliant phantasmagoria of manners and customs. The storiesmove rapidly and defy criticism by the very occasion of their being,invented to amuse and astonish a jaded autocrat.
Hence we feel no shock in reading of an island where the commonestutensils are made of gold, a nursery of whales, five months in theinterior of an iceberg, or a journey among the clouds during athunderstorm. The demand for brevity strengthens Marryat's style, andsaves him from padding. He is very happy in contriving expediences, andevinces considerable wit in the conception, for instance, of Yussuf thewater-carrier. Some of the stories, again, are really dramatic, and the"Second Voyage of Huckaback" (p. 126) reaches a height of weird horrorthat recalls, without paling before the thought, certain passages inThe Ancient Mariner.
* * * * *
The Pacha of Many Tales was first published in The MetropolitanMagazine, 1831-1835. During its appearance Marryat printed in the samemagazine (in 1833) a drama, The Monk of Seville, of which the plot isalmost exactly identical with The Story of the Monk (p. 44). "PortRoyal Tom," the shark, and his Government pension, also appear in JacobFaithful, Chap. XXV.
The Pacha of Many Tales is here printed, with a few corrections, fromthe second edition in 3 vols. A.K. Newman & Co., 1844.
Every one acquainted with the manners and customs of the East must beaware, that there