Penguin Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls Polo Marco

The path to achieving Zen (a balance between the body and the mind) is brilliantly explained by Professor Eugen Herrigel in this timeless account • This book is the result of the author's six year quest to learn archery in the hands of Japanese Zen masters. It is an honest account of one man's journey to complete abandonment of 'the self' and the Western principles that we use to define ourselves. Professor Herrigel imparts knowledge from his experiences and guides the reader through physical and spiritual lessons in a clear and insightful way • Mastering archery is not the key to achieving Zen, and this is not a practical guide to archery. It is more a guide to Zen principles and learning and perfect for practitioners and non-practitioners alike

The United States asserts the right to use military force against ‘failed states’ around the globe. But as Noam Chomsky argues in this devastating analysis, America shares features with many of the regimes it insists are failing and constitute a danger to their neighbours • Offering a comprehensive and radical examination of America past and present, Chomsky shows how this lone superpower – which topples foreign governments, invades states that threaten its interests and imposes sanctions on regimes it opposes – has stretched its own democratic institutions to breaking point. And how an America in crisis places the world ever closer to the brink of nuclear and environmental disaster

Nobel prize winner and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells a tale of an unrequited love that outlasts all rivals in his masterpiece Love in the Time of Cholera, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time • Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza's impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again • When Fermina's husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love

'It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love' • Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza's impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina • When Fermina's husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?

Saul David's All The King's Men is a thrilling history of the British Redcoat from the English Civil War to Waterloo • Between 1660 and 1815 British supremacy on foreign soil was near total. Central to this success was the humble redcoat soldier who showed heroism in battle and stoicism in peace, despite appalling treatment. This is their story: of brutal discipline and inedible food, of loyalty and low pay, of barracks and battlefield - of victory, defeat, life and death

Published posthumously in 1930, Stendhal’s travel notes on his 1838 journey to southern France contain descriptions of cities such as Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseilles, peppered with numerous personal digressions, anecdotes and cultural musings • Both an addition to the Stendhalian canon and a pioneering work of the travel-writing genre, Travels in the South of France provides an illuminating perspective on this popular region and the phenomenon of tourism in general

One of the most iconic characters in children’s literature • Herge’s classic comic book creation Tintin is one of the most recognisable characters in children’s books. These highly collectible editions of the original 24 adventures will delight Tintin fans old and new. Perfect for lovers of graphic novels, mysteries and historical adventures • The world’s most famous travelling reporter heads for Russia. Accompanied by his dog Snowy, Tintin leaves Brussels to go undercover in Soviet Russia. His attempts to research his story are put to the test by the Bolsheviks and Moscow’s secret police • Join the most iconic character in comics as he embarks on an extraordinary adventure spanning historical and political events, and thrilling mysteries

For years, a battered, brown leather suitcase sat in a loft. It contained a treasure trove: more than 250 children’s books from the Soviet Union, most in Russian, but with some in Ukrainian and even a few in Yiddish, almost all published between 1930 and 1933. The collection reveals aspects of the early USSR after the October Revolution and the central role of children’s literature in Soviet culture. Among the stories designed to educate new young citizens are rare editions by Vladimir Lebedev, Vera Ermolaeva, and Aleksandr Dejneka, as well as a remarkable group of Ukrainian books, until now considered as undiscovered areas for even the most dedicated researchers

Классический герой комиксов Эрже Тинтин - один из самых узнаваемых персонажей детских книг. История "Тинтин в стране Советов" приведет в восторг старых и новых поклонников Тинтина. Идеально подходит для любителей графических романов, тайн и исторических приключений • Самый знаменитый в мире репортер-путешественник отправляется в Россию. В сопровождении своей собаки Сноуи Тинтин покидает Брюссель и отправляется в Советскую Россию под прикрытием. Его попытки исследовать историю сталкиваются с противостоянием большевиков и московской тайной полиции • Присоединяйтесь к самому культовому персонажу комиксов, ведь он отправляется в необыкновенное приключение, охватывающее исторические и политические события, а также захватывающие тайны • Книга на английском языке

In the years just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people from across the political spectrum in Europe and America celebrated a great achievement, felt a common purpose and, very often, forged personal friendships. Yet over the following decades the euphoria evaporated, the common purpose and centre ground gradually disappeared, extremism rose once more and eventually - as this book compellingly relates - the relationships soured too • Anne Applebaum traces this history in an unfamiliar way, looking at the trajectories of individuals caught up in the public events of the last three decades. When politics becomes polarized, which side do you back? If you are a journalist, an intellectual, a civic leader, how do you deal with the re-emergence of authoritarian or nationalist ideas in your country? When your leaders appropriate history, or pedal conspiracies, or eviscerate the media and the judiciary, do you go along with it? • Twilight of Democracy is an essay that combines the personal and the political in an original way and brings a fresh understanding to the dynamics of public life in Europe and America, both now and in the recent past

The international bestselling account of America's grim involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2016 • In the wake of the terrible shock of 9/11, the C.I.A. scrambled to work out how to destroy Bin Laden and his associates. Superficially the invasion was quick and efficient, but Bin Laden's successful escape, together with that of much of the Taliban leadership, and a catastrophic failure to define the limits of NATO's mission in a tough, impoverished country the size of Texas, created a quagmire which has now lasted many years. At the heart of the problem lay 'Directorate S', a highly secretive arm of the Pakistan state which had its own views on the Taliban and Afghanistan's place in a wider competition for influence between Pakistan, India and China, and which assumed that the U

In The Marquise of O-, a virtuous widow finds herself unaccountably pregnant. And although the baffled Marquise has no idea when this happened, she must prove her innocence to her doubting family and discover whether the perpetrator is an assailant or lover. Michael Kohlhaas depicts an honourable man who feels compelled to violate the law in his search for justice, while other tales explore the singular realm of the uncanny, such as The Beggarwoman of Locarno, in which an old woman's ghost drives a heartless nobleman to madness, and St Cecilia, which portrays four brothers possessed by an uncontrollable religious mania. The stories collected in this volume reflect the preoccupations of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) with the deceptiveness of human nature and the unpredictability of the physical world