• Metamorphosis

    “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.”

     

    With it’s startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, “Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.”

    Metamorphosis

     240.00
  • Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

    You are sharing the Dark Lord’s thoughts and emotions. The Headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you how to close your mind to the Dark Lord.’

     

    Dark times have come to Hogwarts. After the Dementors’ attack on his cousin Dudley, Harry Potter knows that Voldemort will stop at nothing to find him. There are many who deny the Dark Lord’s return, but Harry is not alone: a secret order gathers at Grimmauld Place to fight against the Dark forces. Harry must allow Professor Snape to teach him how to protect himself from Voldemort’s savage assaults on his mind. But they are growing stronger by the day and Harry is running out of time …

  • Catch-22 (Vintage Classics)

    WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD JACOBSON

     

    Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never even met keep trying to kill him. Joseph Heller’s bestselling novel is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man’s efforts to survive it.

  • Lust For Life

    The classic, bestselling biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh

     

    Since its initial publication in 1934, Irving Stone’s Lust for Life has been a critical success, a multimillion-copy bestseller, and the basis for an Academy Award-winning movie.

     

    The most famous of all of Stone’s novels, it is the story of Vincent Van Gogh—brilliant painter, passionate lover, and alleged madman. Here is his tempestuous story: his dramatic life, his fevered loves for both the highest-born women and the lowest prostitutes, and his paintings—for which he was damned before being proclaimed a genius.

     

    The novel takes us from his desperate days in a coal mine in southern Belgium to his dazzling years in the south of France, where he knew the most brilliant artists (and the most depraved whores). Finally, it shows us Van Gogh driven mad, tragic, and triumphant at once. No other novel of a great man’s life has so fascinated the American public for generations.

    Lust For Life

     1,120.00
  • Penguin: The Odyssey (Paperback)

    “Of the many things hidden from the knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the human heart”

     

    Sequal to The Illiad, the story begins ten years after the Trojan War and the Fall of Troy, when Odysseus, one of the war heroes, has still not returned to his kingdom Ithaca.

     

    The Odyssey, which means the story of Odysseus, highlight another universal truth about life which is the desire to return home, the destructions and sacrifices of war.

     

    When assumed dead, Odysseus’s wife Penelope and son Telemachus struggle with a group of unruly suitors who have overrun their palace wanting to marry Penelope and take over his house. But Odysseus is still alive; imprisoned on the island of Ogygia by Calypso, who is possessed by love for him and desires to make him her immortal husband.

     

    Homer’s epic poem, larger than life emotions, and philosophical thoughts is a reminder of the bitter-sweet melancholies and the simplest desires of life.

  • Penguin Select Classics: The Interpretation of Dreams

    “Our memory has no guarantees at all, and yet we bow more often than…justified to the compulsion to believe what it says.”

     

    What are the most common dreams and why do we have them? Does a dream about death, swimming, seeing a snake or flying symbolize something?

     

    First published by Sigmund Freud in 1899, The Interpretation of Dreams is a deep and psychological research into what our dreams tell about our subconscious fears, traumas, and inherent desires.

     

    Freud’s theories delve into the idea of dreams as a means to wish fulfilment, and the significance of childhood experiences on adult life.

     

    Frued argues and insists that if we fully understand dreams, we will fully understand the unconscious mind.

     

    Encompassing dozens of case histories and detailed analyses of actual dreams; this critical text presents Freud’s legendary work as a tool for comprehending our sleeping experiences.

  • Penguin Select Classics: Anna Karenina

    “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”

     

    Anna Karenina, a beautiful, sensuous, and rebellious young woman, is unhappily married to the wealthy but cold aristocrat Alexey Alexandrovitch. Restless in her passionless marriage, she lives in a society and times where Church rules the order for the wealthy; one wrong can bring down the entire family. Thus, she was floating through life until she met Count Vronsky. They fell passionately in love, convinced they met their soulmates. The story goes through their struggles to get approval for divorce, and their desire to live together in a complex society.

     

    Tolstoy uses his characters to raise complex questions about family’s, egos that become a handcuff, and a society that becomes limiting to individual happiness. His famous novel is seemingly ahead of its times as it questions the inherent bias within people.

  • Penguin Select Classics: Mansfield Park

    “Drama is to life what ships are to the sea. A means to traverse it. To plumb its depths, breadth, and beauty.”

     

    At the age of ten years old, Fanny Price was removed from her poverty stricken home to live with her rich cousins in Mansfield Park. Fanny was beautiful but not seeking beauty, quite but not weak, sensible but not proud. The residents of Mansfield couldn’t get themselves to show her the fondness she deserved. In the midst of it, she had only one ally in her cousin Edmund.

     

    When the cousins grow older, suddenly the Crawfords family takes residence in the neighbourhood, and the sister-brother duo set off events of romantic encounters and heartbreak.

     

    Will Fanny defend her bonds and protect the life she has built in Mansfield Park? Will she hide her love for Edmund or come forth?

     

    Mansfield Park is touted as Austen’s most mature and sensitive novel, mostly in credit to her heroin who is both sensitive and brave.

  • Penguin Select Classics: Frankenstein

    “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as great and sudden change.”

     

    The world of Frankenstein explores the depths of human nature and the consequences of great and sudden change.

     

    Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student of natural science breathes life into a creature made from stolen body parts. Initially seeking love and companionship, the monstrous creation instead incites revulsion in all who encounter it.

     

    Plagued by loneliness and despair, the creature turns against its creator, leading to a devastating climax that claims lives.

     

    Frankenstein serves as a cautionary tale, warning against the perils of scientific and creative ambition, the corrupting influence of unchecked progress, and the dangers of knowledge without true understanding.

  • Penguin Select Classics: The Odyssey (Hardcover)

    “Of the many things hidden from the knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the human heart”

     

    Sequal to The Illiad, the story begins ten years after the Trojan War and the Fall of Troy, when Odysseus, one of the war heroes, has still not returned to his kingdom Ithaca.

     

    The Odyssey, which means the story of Odysseus, highlight another universal truth about life which is the desire to return home, the destructions and sacrifices of war.

     

    When assumed dead, Odysseus’s wife Penelope and son Telemachus struggle with a group of unruly suitors who have overrun their palace wanting to marry Penelope and take over his house. But Odysseus is still alive; imprisoned on the island of Ogygia by Calypso, who is possessed by love for him and desires to make him her immortal husband.

     

    Homer’s epic poem, larger than life emotions, and philosophical thoughts is a reminder of the bitter-sweet melancholies and the simplest desires of life.

  • Penguin Select Classics: Emma

    “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk and show it more.”

     

    In the world of Emma, love, self-discovery, and matchmaking intertwine in a charming countryside town. Emma is Austen’s most vivid heroine : beautiful, spoilt, generous, and exceptionally witty.

     

    While caring for her demanding father, life in the quaint town becomes tiresome. Seeking amusement, Emma immerses herself in the art of matchmaking, set to unite her orphaned friend, Harriet Smith with the eligible clergyman Mr. Elton.

     

    However, her astute neighbor, Mr. Knightley calls her out for seeking her own interest and not her friend’s. Both Emma and Mr.Knightly are attracted to one another, primarily because only they can match each other’s wit and intelligence.

     

    Emma’s path towards maturity and self-awareness is a poignant story. A captivating exploration of personal growth, as she navigates the consequences of her meddling.

  • Penguin Select Classics: The Diary Of A Young Girl

    “I’ve found that there is always some beauty left—in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.’

     

    Anne begins her diary entries at the age of thirteen in June 1942, recording all her experiences until August 1944. All people have the right to freedom, but Anne wasn’t sure that idea included her. During WWII, Anne and her family were forced to go into hiding like many other Jews.

     

    Vivid snippets of two years of living in an annexe, without seeing the sun, are journalled by Anne. From their bones dwindling to her emotional growth all is reflected in her writings. She writes of her passion for literature and art, her desire to travel, the struggles of family ties in hiding: showing her incredible emotional resilience.

     

    How does she keep her spirits alive through imagination, hold onto the hopes of free life, when they weren’t allowed to bring attention to themselves?

  • Penguin Select Classics: The Iliad

    “Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country’s cause”

     

    Often considered the first great book of literature, The Illiad is an epic poem which set the stage for all larger-than-life dramas the creative world has since witnessed.

     

    It tells the story of the darkest episode of the most retold Trojan War. It’s an epic poem, with beautiful lyrical tone, set around an eternal love story, an eternal friendship, and an eternal enmity.

     

    At the centre of the story is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, the great principled and morally upright King Priam offering valuable insights to life, the beautiful Helen and all the mistakes one makes in love, war, and life.

     

    The Illiad is a must read for all fond of beautifully strung words that pull at heart strings with a deep sense of catharsis.

  • Penguin Select Classics: Pride And Prejudice

    ‘But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.’

     

    A sensitive story about the loves and lives of the five Bennet sisters, especially Elizabeth Bennet the unusual heroine. Elizabeth is neither too pretty nor too talented but has a strong sense of self; it was fireworks when she met Mr. Darcy who finally clashed with someone as strong-willed as him.

     

    Mrs Bennet wants to marry her daughters off and devises schemes to set them up with prosperous men at the ball hosted by the Bingley family. All her daughters find love, but not the easiest route to marriage.

     

    Their journeys take them through unexpected betrayals and surprises. As life pits Darcy and Elizabeth against each other, Darcy is the saviour at every turn squashing every reason for Elizabeth’s hesitance. Can Elizabeth overcome her pride to seek love?

  • Prophet Song

    A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author

     

    On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

     

    Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

     

    How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?

     

    Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.

    Prophet Song

     960.00
  • Meditations (Translated by Gregory Hays)

    Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life.

     

    Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161–180). A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years ago.

     

    In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

     

    With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.

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