The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Barth
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Plot: Metafiction
- Time of Work: The ninth and twentieth centuries
- Setting: Ninth century Baghdad and twentieth century Maryland
- Principal Characters: Simon Behler, Bijou, Jane Price, Sindbad the Sailor, Jayda, Kuzia Fakan, Yasmin
- Genres: Long fiction, Metafiction
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Folkloric or magical people, Mythology or myths, Storytelling, Fantasy, Identity, Genies or jinns
- Locales: Maryland, Baghdad
The Novel
In The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, Scheherazade, the heroine of the medieval Arabic short-story collection The Thousand and One Nights (ca. 900) and her sister Dunyazade have now grown old. Their husbands and even their children have died. They wonder if their fabulous story is finally coming to an end. Meanwhile, at a lavish banquet, the mysterious Somebody the Sailor is telling the people of Baghdad about his many voyages. He is matched in this storytelling feat by Baghdad’s most famous hero, Sindbad the Sailor.
In another dimension,...
[The entire page is 2020 words long]
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