James Ridley facts for kids
James Kenneth Ridley (born 1736, died 1765) was an English writer. He studied at University College, Oxford. Later, he worked as a chaplain for the British Army. He is most famous for a book of stories that sounded like they came from the Middle East.
James Ridley's Books
Ridley wrote two novels. These were The History of James Lovegrove, Esquire (published in 1761) and The Schemer, or the Universal Satirist (published in 1763). However, people remember him best for his book The Tales of the Genii. This book was a collection of stories similar to those in Arabian Nights.
The Tales of the Genii
The Tales of the Genii came out in 1764. It was published in two parts. Ridley used a fake name, or pseudonym, for this book: "Sir Charles Morell." He pretended that "Sir Charles Morell" was a British Ambassador in a place called Bombay.
The stories in The Tales of the Genii were supposedly written by a religious leader named Horam. Ridley claimed they were translated from an old Persian book. But really, Ridley made up all the stories himself!
This type of writing, which copied the style of Middle Eastern tales, was very popular in the 1700s. Ridley's book was often compared to Rasselas, a famous story by Samuel Johnson. The Tales of the Genii stayed popular for a long time. By 1861, it had been printed seven times. It was also translated into German and French.
