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Farewell, Damascus
Farewell, Damascus
Ghada Samman
¥73.49
Ghada Samman’s most recent novel,? Farewell, Damascus ?is set in early 1960’s Damascus – a city that now languishes in the grip of corruption and political oppression following the Baathist takeover in Syria. The book opens as Zain Khayyal, a university student and aspiring young writer, plots an early-morning escape from her house as her husband slumbers. Her mission: to get an illicit abortion, plans for which she’s divulged to no one, and to announce that she wants out of her stifling marriage. A rebel and a trail-blazer par excellence, Zain draws down the wrath of polite society and the authorities, political and religious alike, as she challenges attitudes and practices that demean rather than dignify, and a ruling regime that sucks the life out of both oppressed and oppressor. As the plot unfolds, Zain finds her way as a student to a neighbouring country which, though it grants her the freedom, respect and appreciation she had lacked in her homeland, becomes a place of anguished exile. Armed with her accustomed humour, pathos and knack for suspense, Samman fearlessly tackles issues that roil societies across the globe to this day: the stigma that attaches to the divorced woman but not the divorced man; whether to choose a life partner for love, or for social status, prestige and material security; whether abortion is a crime or a means of forestalling needless undeserved suffering; lesbian intimacy as a declaration of freedom from male abuse and tyranny; rape as an instrument of humiliation and subjugation and unconditional acceptance as healing balm.? Farewell, Damascus ?is both a paean to a beloved homeland and an ode to human dignity.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
¥40.79
In Civil Disobedience Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice.
Meno
Meno
Plato
¥40.79
This Dialogue begins abruptly with a question of Meno, who asks, 'whether virtue can be taught.' Socrates replies that he does not as yet know what virtue is, and has never known anyone who did. 'Then he cannot have met Gorgias when he was at Athens.' Yes, Socrates had met him, but he has a bad memory, and has forgotten what Gorgias said. Will Meno tell him his own notion, which is probably not very different from that of Gorgias? 'O yes—nothing easier: there is the virtue of a man, of a woman, of an old man, and of a child; there is a virtue of every age and state of life, all of which may be easily described.'
Crito
Crito
Plato
¥40.79
The Crito seems intended to exhibit the character of Socrates in one light only, not as the philosopher, fulfilling a divine mission and trusting in the will of heaven, but simply as the good citizen, who having been unjustly condemned is willing to give up his life in obedience to the laws of the state . . .
Categories
Categories
Aristotle
¥40.79
Categories is a text from Aristotle's Organon that enumerates all the possible kinds of things that can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition. They are considered the single most heavily discussed of all Aristotelian notions.
The Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant
¥40.79
One of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Known as Kant's First Critique, dealing with questions concerning the foundations and extent of human knowledge, Kant builds on the work of empiricist philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume, as well as taking into account the theories of rationalist philosophers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff.
The African Wars: English and Latin Language
The African Wars: English and Latin Language
Julius Caesar
¥40.79
Caesar, advancing by moderate journeys, and continuing his march without intermission, arrived at Lilybaeum, on the 14th day before the calends of January. Designing to embark immediately, though he had only one legion of new levies, and not quite six hundred horse, he ordered his tent to be pitched so near the sea-side that the waves lashed the very foot of it. This he did with a view that none should think he had time to delay, and that his men might be kept in readiness at a day or an hour's warning. Though the wind at that time was contrary, he nevertheless detained the soldiers and mariners on board, that he might lose no opportunity of sailing; the rather, because the forces of the enemy were announced by the inhabitants of the province, to consist of innumberable cavalry not to be numbered; four legions headed by Juba, together with a great body of light-armed troops; ten legions under the command of Scipio; a hundred and twenty elephants, and fleets in abundance. Yet he was not alarmed, nor lost his confident hopes and spirits. Meantime the number of galleys and transports increased daily; the new-levied legions flocked in to him from all parts; among the rest the fifth, a veteran legion, and about two thousand horse.
The Selfish Giant
The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde
¥40.79
Perpetual winter comes to a beautiful garden of the selfish giant who erected a wall around it to stop children playing in the garden. Unexpected consequences follow. The birds stop singing in this garden and both trees and flowers stop blossoming. One day discovers that spring has returned to the garden, as the children have found a way in through a gap in the wall. He sees the error of his ways, and resolves to destroy the wall.
The Devoted Friend
The Devoted Friend
Oscar Wilde
¥40.79
Little Hans spends most of his time gardening and makes a living from sales of his beautiful flowers. Little Hans always treats his neighbours well and even allows neighbouring rich Miller to pick flowers from his garden. But the Miller rarely invites Hans into his house or responds in kind. The Miller instead develops has his own philosophy of friendship: ‘Lots of people act well but very few people talk well, which shows that talking is much the more difficult thing of the two, and much the finer thing also'.
A Woman of No Importance
A Woman of No Importance
Oscar Wilde
¥40.79
The play opens with a party on a terrace in Lady Hunstanton's estate. The upper class guests exchange social gossip and small talk. Lady Caroline Pontrefact patronizes an American visitor, Hester Worsley, and proceeds to give her own opinion on everyone in the room and her surrounding life. Lady Caroline also denounces Hester's enthusiasm for Gerald Arbuthnot until Gerald himself enters to proclaim that Lord Illingworth, a powerful, flirtatious male political figure intends to take him under his wing as secretary.
The Model Millionaire
The Model Millionaire
Oscar Wilde
¥40.79
Hughie Erskine is in love and wants to marry, but the girl's father will not allow it, since Erskine has no money. Erskine's friend Alan Trevor is a painter, and he visits him at his studio one day to find him with a pitiable beggar — the model for his painting. Erskine only has one coin, on which he depends for transportation, but he decides he can walk for a couple of weeks and gives the beggar the coin.
The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby
The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby
Charles Kingsley
¥40.79
Tom is a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after meeting an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he drowns and is transformed into a water-baby. Tom embarks on a series of adventures and lessons, and enjoys the community of other water-babies once he proves himself a moral creature.
Tales of Dostoyevsky, Volume 1
Tales of Dostoyevsky, Volume 1
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
¥40.79
Dostoyevsky is the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn', remarked Friedrich Nietzsche. 'He ranks among the most beautiful strokes of fortune in my life'. Discover the universal truths and wisdoms of Dostoyevsky in this volume of Dostoyevsky's tales including: An Honest Thief, The Heavenly Christmas Tree, The Peasant Marey.
The Odd Women
The Odd Women
George Gissing
¥40.79
Alice and Virginia Madden move to London and renew their friendship with Rhoda, an unmarried bluestocking. She is living with the also unmarried Mary Barfoot, and together they run an establishment teaching secretarial skills to young middle-class women remaindered in the marriage equation.
Thyrza
Thyrza
George Gissing
¥40.79
Thyrza Trent, a young hat-trimmer, meets and falls in love with Walter Egremont, an Oxford-trained idealist who gives lectures on literature to workers. Trapped by birth and circumstance, Thyrza is attempting to escape her destiny in this tale of ambition, romance, betrayal and disillusionment.
The Secret of the Island
The Secret of the Island
Jules Verne
¥40.79
It was now two years and a half since the castaways from the balloon had been thrown on Lincoln Island, and during that period there had been no communication between them and their fellow-creatures. Once the reporter had attempted to communicate with the inhabited world by confiding to a bird a letter which contained the secret of their situation, but that was a chance on which it was impossible to reckon seriously. Ayrton, alone, under the circumstances which have been related, had come to join the little colony.
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The Wisdom of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton
¥40.79
Two men appeared simultaneously at the two ends of a sort of passage running along the side of the Apollo Theatre in the Adelphi. The evening daylight in the streets was large and luminous, opalescent and empty. The passage was comparatively long and dark, so each man could see the other as a mere black silhouette at the other end. Nevertheless, each man knew the other, even in that inky outline; for they were both men of striking appearance and they hated each other.
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
Oscar Wilde
¥40.79
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime is the opening story in this volume of Oscar Wilde tales and this collection will delight the reader with slightly darker undertones of Wilde's hugely enjoyable humorous tales. Also included in this collection: The Canterville Ghost, The Sphinx Without a Secret, The Modle Millionaire, The Protrait of Mr. W.H.
Our Friend the Charlatan
Our Friend the Charlatan
George Gissing
¥40.79
As he waited for his breakfast, never served to time, Mr. Lashmar drummed upon the window-pane, and seemed to watch a blackbird lunching with much gusto about the moist lawn of Alverholme Vicarage. But his gaze was absent and worried. The countenance of the reverend gentleman rarely wore any other expression, for he took to heart all human miseries and follies, and lived in a ceaseless mild indignation against the tenor of the age.
On Memory and Reminiscence
On Memory and Reminiscence
Aristotle
¥40.79
We have, in the next place, to treat of Memory and Remembering, considering its nature, its cause, and the part of the soul to which this experience, as well as that of Recollecting, belongs. For the persons who possess a retentive memory are not identical with those who excel in power of recollection; indeed, as a rule, slow people have a good memory, whereas those who are quick-witted and clever are better at recollecting.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics
Aristotle
¥40.79
All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things.