Οι Δουβλινέζοι
Ο πολυτάραχος 20ός αιώνας μόλις ξεκινά και ο μεγάλος Ιρλανδός συγγραφέας, έχοντας πλήρη επίγνωση της αγκυλωμένης πραγματικότητας που παραλύει τη χώρα του, τρυπώνει στις πιο ανύποπτες γωνιές του αγαπημένου του Δουβλίνου και με τα απλούστερα μυθοπλαστικά μέσα -την αβίαστη μα απαράμιλλη οξυδέρκειά του, τα μουντά, ρεαλιστικά χρώματα και τον αφοπλιστικό δισταγμό των ηρώων του την κρίσιμη στιγμή- κατορθώνει να συνθέσει τη σπουδαιότερη ίσως συλλογή διηγημάτων στην ιστορία της αγγλόφωνης λογοτεχνίας. "Έβρισκε ασήμαντα όλα εκείνα που κανονικά θα το...
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Η μαύρη τουλίπα
Η "Μαύρη Τουλίπα" του Αλέξανδρου Δουμά (πατρός) πρωτοδημοσιεύτηκε το 1850 και έκτοτε καταλαμβάνει ξεχωριστή θέση στα κλασικά έργα της λογοτεχνίας. Με φόντο την ειδυλλιακή Ολλανδία του 17ου αιώνα, μια περίοδο έντονων πολιτικών ταραχών όπου ο θεσμός της μοναρχίας επανέρχεται στη χώρα, και κεντρικό πρωταγωνιστή τον Κορνήλιο βαν Μπέρλε, έναν ευαίσθητο λάτρη λουλουδιών ο οποίος ανακαλύπτει τη σπάνια μαύρη τουλίπα, ο Δουμάς πλέκει με χάρη και αμεσότητα, απολαυστικές δόσεις λεπτής ειρωνείας και αριστοτεχνικό αφηγηματικό οίστρο μια συναρπαστική πλ...
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Το φάντασμα της όπερας
Στα καμαρίνια της επιβλητικής όπερας του Παρισιού οργιάζουν φήμες για την ύπαρξη ενός μοχθηρού φαντάσματος που κατοικεί στα υπόγεια του κτιρίου, εκβιάζει τους διευθυντές και επιτίθεται στο προσωπικό. Στη μεγάλη πρεμιέρα του Φάουστ, μια πανέμορφη και άγνωστη νεαρή τραγουδίστρια μαγεύει με την ερμηνεία της το παρισινό κοινό κι αιχμαλωτίζει την καρδιά του υποκόμη Ραούλ, που παρακολουθεί συνεπαρμένος από τα θεωρεία. Κι ενώ όλοι περιμένουν τον επόμενο μεγάλο της θρίαμβο, η νεαρή κοπέλα εξαφανίζεται από προσώπου γης. Ο υποκόμης ψάχνει να τη βρει...
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(P/B) PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by her cynical and indolent husband. With its wit, its social precision and, above all, its irresistible heroine, Pride and Prejudice has proved one of the most enduringly popular novels in the English language. (from the publisher)...
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Ο ΑΝΑΡΧΙΚΟΣ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΙΤΗΣ
Ο Αναρχικός τραπεζίτης γράφτηκε το 1922, παραμένει ωστόσο έργο εξαιρετικά επίκαιρο. Το διήγημα με τον οξύμωρο και προκλητικό τίτλο καταπιάνεται με την τυραννία που ασκούν στον άνθρωπο οι ποικίλες "κοινωνικές επινοήσεις", μεταξύ των οποίων ισχυρότερη -και χειρότερη- είναι το χρήμα. Στον διάλογο του τραπεζίτη με τον ανώνυμο συνομιλητή του, ο τελευταίος ζητά να διασαφηνιστεί η προφανής αντίφαση που προκύπτει από τη συνύπαρξη των όρων "αναρχικός" και "τραπεζίτης". Η συζήτηση μετατρέπεται σε καταγγελία των καθιερωμένων συμβάσεων που φράζουν τον...
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(P/B) THE WEALTH OF NATIONS: BOOKS I-III
With this landmark treatise on political economy, Adam Smith paved the way for modern capitalism, arguing that a truly free market - fired by competition yet guided as if by an 'invisible hand' to ensure justice and equality - was the engine of a fair and productive society. Books I - III of The Wealth of Nations examine the 'division of labour' as the key to economic growth, by ensuring the interdependence of individuals within society. They also cover the origins of money and the importance of wages, profit, rent and stocks. Smith's work...
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(P/B) THE IDIOT
Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from an asylum in Switzerland. As he becomes embroiled in the frantic amatory and financial intrigues which centre around a cast of brilliantly realised characters and which ultimately lead to tragedy, he emerges as a unique combination of the Christian ideal of perfection and Dostoevsky's own views, afflictions and manners. His serene selflessness is contrasted with the worldly qualities of every other character in the novel. Dostoevsky supplies a harsh indictment of the Russian ruling class of his day who...
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(P/B) FORBIDDEN COLOURS
Written when Mishima was only twenty six, Forbidden Colours is a depiction of a male homosexual relationship, in which a rich older man buys the love of a young man who is stunningly handsome but who lacks the ability to love. As in Mann's Death in Venice, the older man's longing for the beauty of youth is associated with aestheticism and death. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD & THE GAMBLER
Dostoevsky's fascination for mental breakdown and violence (20 murders in his four main novels) was based on his own life, and these two unmistakably autobiographical works bear this out. The House of the Dead is fiction, but based on his four years in a Siberian prison. An educated upper-class man is condemned to live among criminals and brutal guards, with arbitrary punishments, lousy food, disgusting living conditions, hard toil and many floggings. Somehow he avoids bitterness and recrimination; faith in humanity survives. With its brea...
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(P/B) A SECURE BASE
As Bowlby himself points out in his introduction to this seminal childcare book, to be a successful parent means a lot of very hard work. Giving time and attention to children means sacrificing other interests and activities. For many people today these are unwelcome truths. Yet a healthy parent-child bond is not only vital for well-being, but an essential part of what it means to be human. Attachment theory teaches that there are three main attachment patterns - secure, avoidant or ambivalent, and these behaviours continue into adulthood....
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(P/B) THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND
Written when Engels was only twenty-four, and inspired in particular by his time living amongst the poor in Manchester, this forceful polemic explores the staggering human cost of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. Engels paints an unforgettable picture of daily life in the new industrial towns, and for miners and agricultural workers--depicting overcrowded housing, abject poverty, child labour, sexual exploitation, dirt and drunkenness--in a savage indictment of the greed of the bourgeoisie. His fascinating later preface, wri...
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(P/B) COLLECTED SHORT STORIES (VOLUME 4)
This final classic collection of stories reveals Somerset Maugham's unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships. Brilliant tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice, the stories range from 'The Lotus Eater' in which a man has a vision of a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of 'The Outstation' and 'The Back of Beyond' in Malaya and South East Asia. Largely set in favourite Maugham country, this colourful collection brilliantly evokes the numbered days of the British E...
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(P/B) THE PAINTED VEIL
Kitty Fane is the beautiful but shallow wife of Walter, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. Unsatisfied by her marriage, she starts an affair with Charles Townsend, a man whom she finds charming, attractive and exciting. But when Walter discovers her deception, he exacts a strange but terrible vengeance: Kitty must accompany him to his new posting in remote mainland China, where a cholera epidemic rages.First published to a storm of protest, The Painted Veil is a classic story of a woman's spiritual awakening. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM
Hannah Arendt's authoritative and controversial report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in the New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition of Eichmann in Jerusalem contains further factual material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript commenting on the controversy that arose over her book. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) COLLECTED SHORT STORIES (VOLUME 2)
The stories in this collection move from Malaya to America and England, and include some of Maugham's most famous tales; 'Flotsam and Jetsam', the story of an old woman trapped for years in a loveless marriage in the remote rubber plantations; 'The Man with the Scar', and notably the opening story 'The Vessel of Wrath', a tale of the unexpected love that grows between a devout missionary nurse and a drunken reprobate. In this second volume of his collected stories, Maugham illustrates his characteristic wry perception of human foibles and ...
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MADEMOISELLE FIFI / THE DEVIL
Guy de Maupassant's sharpness, brilliance and wit made him the most popular short story writer of his day. In Mademoiselle Fifi, set during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, a loutish and destructive band of Prussian officers has taken over a beautiful French Chateau. They call in some prostitutes to eleviate their boredom but the evening goes badly wrong. In The Devil a young peasant farmer, fretting over the expense of his elderly mother's imminent death, strikes a deal with an odious old ironing woman. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) PLATO: THE SYMPOSIUM
In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love - as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a ...
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(P/B) SHOEDOG
Constantine is a drifter with a lot of miles behind him, a lot more ahead and plenty of jobs in between that never showed up on anyone's books. Back in his home town, he hitches a ride on a bright spring morning with a little man named Polk. There's one stop Polk needs to make, and it changes Constantine's life forever. Like the kind of cars they don't make anymore and the kind of songs they don't sing,Shoedog has the style, rhythm and muscle of a classic. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

(P/B) THROUGH PAEDIATRICS TO PSYCHOANALYSIS
The value of Winnicott's work has become more and more widely recognized not only among psycho-analysts but also psychologists, educators, social workers, and men and women in every branch of medicine; indeed, all whose work or practice involves the care of children in health or sickness. An important part of the value of these writings lies in the uniquely binocular view with which the author regards the subjects of his investigation. With him, pediatrics informs psycho-analysis; psycho-analysis illuminates pediatrics. This book is not co...
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