New York: Random House, 2003. Hardcover/dust jacket Octavo. Hardcover. Very good/good. maroon papered boards, gilt lettering, dust jacket, 347 pp

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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: San Francisco Book Company (FR)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 89206
Title: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Author: Nafisi, Azar
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Very good
Jacket Condition: good
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: Hardcover/dust jacket Octavo
ISBN 10: 0375504907
ISBN 13: 9780375504907
Publisher: Random House
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2003
Keywords: History, Iran, Literature

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Glossary

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Gilt: The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...