Always one to point out the pretentions of the upper classes, Saki is also famous for usually giving us a wry twist to the endings of his stories.

We see the grand gestures on social media. The weekends on the yacht. The Gucci, Fendi and Louis. The diamonds with more carats than the produce section. We see the love but we wonder: is true love also seen in the everyday unannounced acts like oiling scalps, zipping the back of a dress, afternoon phone calls just because and small neck massages?

Welcome to The Arabian Nights Entertainments! This is the second of 16 parts that make up Andrew Lang’s The Arabian Nights Entertainments. In this series, you’ll hear some familiar stories, some new stories, and even stories within stories. Everyone has a story to tell. In today’s stories we have four different characters telling stories, in addition to our main narrator! Our stories are The Story of the Fisherman, The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban, The Story of the Husband and the Parrot, The Story of the Vizir Who Was Punished, and The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles.