Fabulous Machinery For The Curious

Author : Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520388240
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fabulous Machinery for the Curious written by Musharraf Ali Farooqi and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-25 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An absorbing, joyous, and colorful collection of stories from the qissa genre. Fabulous Machinery for the Curious presents the first English translation of some of the finest texts from the qissa genre. In this book, acclaimed translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi gathers the greatest of these tales, written or transcribed in the Urdu language by master storytellers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Spreading from Persia to Arabia to South Asia over 1,500 years, the qissa appropriated verse and prose narratives to become the preeminent storytelling genre. The combined traditions of the many cultures of Indo-Islamic civilization resulted in a flowering of qissas in Urdu. This collection distills a vast body of oral and written literature, from resplendent sagas of romantic love and thrilling adventures in fairyland to picaresque stories of deception and haunting tales of nobility and viciousness. Fabulous Machinery for the Curious brings these forgotten gems to a new generation of readers and reminds us of the abiding power that great stories and ancient genres have for engaging the contemporary world.

Author : Edward H. Schafer
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520341147
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Golden Peaches of Samarkand written by Edward H. Schafer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seventh century the kingdom of Samarkand sent formal gifts of fancy yellow peaches, large as goose eggs and with a color like gold, to the Chinese court at Ch'ang-an. What kind of fruit these golden peaches really were cannot now be guessed, but they have the glamour of mystery, and they symbolize all the exotic things longed for, and unknown things hoped for, by the people of the T'ang empire. This book examines the exotics imported into China during the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907), and depicts their influence on Chinese life. Into the land during the three centuries of T'ang came the natives of almost every nation of Asia, all bringing exotic wares either as gifts or as goods to be sold. Ivory, rare woods, drugs, diamonds, magicians, dancing girls—the author covers all classes of unusual imports, their places of origin, their lore, their effort on costume, dwellings, diet, and on painting, sculpture, music, and poetry. This book is not a statistical record of commercial imports and medieval trade, but rather a "humanistic essay, however material its subject matter."

Author : Jun'ichirō. Tanizaki
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231554419
Total Pages : 111 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Longing and Other Stories written by Jun'ichirō. Tanizaki and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jun’ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most eminent Japanese writers of the twentieth century, renowned for his investigations of family dynamics, eroticism, and cultural identity. Most acclaimed for his postwar novels such as The Makioka Sisters and The Key, Tanizaki made his literary debut in 1910. This book presents three powerful stories of family life from the first decade of Tanizaki’s career that foreshadow the themes the great writer would go on to explore. “Longing” recounts the fantastic journey of a precocious young boy through an eerie nighttime landscape. Replete with striking natural images and uncanny human encounters, it ends with a striking revelation. “Sorrows of a Heretic” follows a university student and aspiring novelist who lives in degrading poverty in a Tokyo tenement. Ambitious and tormented, the young man rebels against his family against a backdrop of sickness and death. “The Story of an Unhappy Mother” describes a vivacious but self-centered woman’s drastic transformation after a freak accident involving her son and daughter-in-law. Written in different genres, the three stories are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan’s traditional culture in the face of Westernization. The longtime Tanizaki translators Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy masterfully bring these important works to an Anglophone audience.

Author : Reginald Jackson
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520382552
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Proximate Remove written by Reginald Jackson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. How might queer theory transform our interpretations of medieval Japanese literature and how might this literature reorient the assumptions, priorities, and critical practices of queer theory? Through a close reading of The Tale of Genji, an eleventh-century text that depicts the lifestyles of aristocrats during the Heian period, A Proximate Remove explores this question by mapping the destabilizing aesthetic, affective, and phenomenological dimensions of experiencing intimacy and loss. The spatiotemporal fissures Reginald Jackson calls "proximate removes" suspend belief in prevailing structures. Beyond issues of sexuality, Genji queers in its reluctance to romanticize or reproduce a flawed social order. An understanding of this hesitation enhances how we engage with premodern texts and how we question contemporary disciplinary stances.

Author : Ghalib Lakhnavi
Publisher : Modern Library
ISBN 13 : 0812977440
Total Pages : 562 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Adventures of Amir Hamza written by Ghalib Lakhnavi and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a special abridged English translation of a major Indo-Persian epic: a panoramic tale of magic and passion, a classic hero’s odyssey that has captivated much of the world. It is the spellbinding story of Amir Hamza, the adventurer who in the service of the Persian emperor defeats many enemies, loves many women, and converts hundreds of infidels to the True Faith before finding his way back to his first love. In Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s remarkable abridged rendition, this masterwork is captured with all its colorful action and fantastic elements intact. Appreciated as the seminal Islamic epic or enjoyed as a sweeping tale as rich and inventive as Homer’s epic sagas, The Adventures of Amir Hamza is a true literary treasure.

Author : Guanzhong Luo
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520344553
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Three Kingdoms written by Guanzhong Luo and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A material epic with an astonishing fidelity to history."—New York Times Book Review Three Kingdoms tells the story of the fateful last reign of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220), when the Chinese empire was divided into three warring kingdoms. Writing some twelve hundred years later, the Ming author Luo Guanzhong drew on histories, dramas, and poems portraying the crisis to fashion a sophisticated, compelling narrative that has become the Chinese national epic. This abridged edition captures the novel's intimate and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this Ming dynasty masterpiece continues to be widely influential in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam and remains a great work of world literature.

Author : Iranshah
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520385314
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Kushnameh written by Iranshah and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English translation of a strange and unusual Persian epic, this action-packed tale of an evil, monstrous king explores questions of nature and nurture and brings the global middle ages to life. The great Persian epic known as the Kushnameh follows the entangled lives of Kush the Tusked––a monstrous antihero with tusks and ears like an elephant, descended from the evil emperor Zahhak––and Abtin, the exiled grandson of the last true Persian emperor. Abandoned at birth in the forests of China and raised by Abtin, Kush grows into a powerful and devious warrior. Kush and his foes scheme and wage war across a global stage reaching from Spain and Africa to China and Korea. Between epic battles and magnificent feasts are disturbing, sometimes realistic portrayals of abuse and oppression and philosophical speculation about nature and nurture and the origins of civilization. A fantastical adventure story stretching across the known world and a literary classic of unparalleled richness, this important work of medieval Persian literature is a valuable source for understanding the history of racism and constructions of race and the flows of lore and legend from the Central Asian Silk Road and the Sahara to the sea routes of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The Kushnameh is a treasure trove of Islamic and pre-Islamic Persian cultural history and a striking contemporary document of the “global middle ages,” now available to English-speaking readers for the first time.

Author : Lissa Evans
Publisher : Union Square & Co.
ISBN 13 : 1402798458
Total Pages : 143 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms written by Lissa Evans and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enter a wonderful world filled with real magic, mystery … and danger. As if being small for his age and also having S. Horten as his name isnt bad enough, now 10-year-old Stuart is forced to move far away from all his friends.But on his very first day in his new home, Stuarts swept up in an extraordinary adventure: the quest to find his great-uncle Tony--a famous magician who literally disappeared off the face of the earth--and Tonys marvelous, long-lost workshop. Along the way, Stuart reluctantly accepts help from the annoying triplets next door… and encounters trouble from another magician whos also desperate to get hold of Tonys treasures. A quirky, smart, charming page-turner, Hortens Miraculous Mechanisms will enchant young readers--as well as teachers, librarians, and parents. Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal (2012) and the Guardian Childrens Fiction Prize (2011)

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520227040
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mahabharata written by and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Buck's stirring retelling of a classic Indian epic--in its original Sanskrit, probably the largest epic ever composed.

Author : Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307372995
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Story of a Widow written by Musharraf Ali Farooqi and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-08-04 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One day when she looked at the portrait, she considered how blessed she had been in life. She contemplated her good fortune in finding an upright man like Akbar Ahmad as her life partner and felt grateful for his bounteous legacy, which released her from all financial cares. Akbar Ahmad looked back at her, his face cast in an expression of long suffering. Mona’s eyes welled up with tears.”–from The Story of a Widow After the death of her husband Akbar Ahmad, Mona finds herself settling ambivalently into a new life. But the calm rhythm of her days–gardening, cooking, time with her neighbours and family in Karachi–is upset by the appearance of Salamat Ali, the new tenant in her friend Mrs. Baig’s house. Vivacious, friendly, and at times almost impertinent, Salamat Ali is both a breath of fresh air and a disconcerting new presence in Mona’s life, and their awkward meetings always seem to end in embarrassment or misunderstanding. When Salamat Ali, encouraged by Mrs. Baig, presents Mona with a marriage proposal, she is forced to consider what kind of future she wishes to make for herself–and what her past with Akbar Ahmad really means. The possibility of Mona marrying Salamat Ali shocks her grown daughters Tanya and Amber, and scandalizes her extended family, according to whom Mona’s happiness comes second to what people say about widows who remarry. As Mona negotiates the complex web of tradition-bound in-laws and gossiping, interfering relatives, she finds Salamat Ali waking her to the pleasures of life that thirty years with her dour first husband all but smothered. But if Salamat Ali helps her discover something essential, he also exposes her to new risks, and new dangers. The Story of a Widow is a beautifully observant novel, one that pays careful attention to the delicate movements of the heart in romantic and family life. But it is equally concerned with the mores of a society in which traditional roles both support and constrain men and–particularly–women. Gently humorous and profoundly perceptive, The Story of a Widow is the moving tale of a woman’s discovery of her voice, and herself.