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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Nafisi, Azar
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0375504907
- ISBN 13
- 9780375504907
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, United Kingdom
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
Hardback. Very Good.
Synopsis
We all have dreams--things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi's dream and of the nightmare that made it come true.For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading--Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita--their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran.Nafisi's account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi's class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of "the Great Satan," she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense.Azar Nafisi's luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women's lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews
On Feb 15 2015, The Old Library Bookshop said:
If you’ve ever questioned the value of literature--particularly of fiction--to transform and inspire, you’ve only to read this memoir by a talented Iranian woman, a professor of Western literature. Nafisi’s university classrooms during the chaotic years of the Iranian revolution were filled with young people defined by their various “-isms.” They seemed to be more like political battlegrounds than places of learning and discovery. Finally, in 1995, Dr. Nafisi came to the realization that she no longer could function within the strictures imposed by the Islamic Republic, not only the punitive dress requirements for women but also the demands to screen all literature through the prism of Islamic fundamentalism and its moral code. Leaving the halls of academia, she chose from among her students seven women who shared her fondness for Western literature to meet in her home one morning a week to discuss assigned readings. As Nafisi and her “girls” studied their favorite authors--among them Jane Austen, Flaubert, Henry James, and, of course, Nabokov--they also came to better understand the society in which they lived and their own individual hopes and needs. Of particular poignancy was the wrenching decision by the Nafisis and a few of the students to leave their homeland. The many strands of this beautifully written memoir come together flawlessly. The reader comes away with a better understanding of 20th-century Iranian history and several great works of Western literature, along with a detailed portrait of seven unique Iranian women and their remarkable teacher.
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Details
- Bookseller
- World of Books Ltd
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- GOR002132611
- Title
- Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
- Author
- Nafisi, Azar
- Format/Binding
- Hardback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0375504907
- ISBN 13
- 9780375504907
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group
- Place of Publication
- New York
- This edition first published
- 2003-03-25
Terms of Sale
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About the Seller
World of Books Ltd
Biblio member since 2007
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex
About World of Books Ltd
In 2002, World of Books Group was founded on an ethos to do good, protect the planet and support charities by enabling more goods to be reused. Since then, we've grown into to a global company pioneering the circular economy. Today, we drive the circular economy through three re-commerce brands:
- Wob: Through Wob, we sell. We provide affordable, preloved books and media to customers all over the world. A book leaves our collection of over seven million titles and begins a new chapter every two seconds, enabling more goods to be reused.
- Ziffit: Through Ziffit, we buy. We give people around the world the opportunity to contribute to the circular economy, earn money and protect the planet, by trading their unwanted books and media.
- Shopiago: Through Shopiago, we help others. By sharing the technology that has grown World of Books Group into the business it is today, we're helping charities increase revenue and reduce waste through re-commerce.
- Wob: Through Wob, we sell. We provide affordable, preloved books and media to customers all over the world. A book leaves our collection of over seven million titles and begins a new chapter every two seconds, enabling more goods to be reused.
- Ziffit: Through Ziffit, we buy. We give people around the world the opportunity to contribute to the circular economy, earn money and protect the planet, by trading their unwanted books and media.
- Shopiago: Through Shopiago, we help others. By sharing the technology that has grown World of Books Group into the business it is today, we're helping charities increase revenue and reduce waste through re-commerce.
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