Widely regarded as one of Edith Wharton`s greatest achievements, The Age of Innocence is not only subtly satirical, but also a sometimes dark & disturbing comedy of manners in its exploration of the `eternal triangle` of love. Set against the backdrop of upper-class New York society during the 1870s, the author`s combination of powerful prose combined with a thoroughly researched & meticulous evocation of the manners & style of the period, has delighted readers since the novel`s first publication in 1920. In 1921 The Age of Innocence achieved a double distinction
- it won the Pulitzer Prize & it was the first time this prestigious award had been won by a woman author.
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J. M. Coetzee’s “ Age of Iron” is another example of why this author in particular has won both the Booker Prize & the Nobel Prize for Literature. Here, J. M. Coetzee brings his insight & deft use of language to bear on one of the darkest episodes of our times. In Cape Town, South Africa, an elderly classics professor writes a letter to her distant daughter, recounting the strange & disturbing events of her dying days. She has been opposed to the lies & brutality of apartheid all her life, but now she finds herself coming face-to-face with its true horrors: the hounding by the police of her servant`s son, the burning of a nearby black township, the murder by security forces of a teenage activist who seeks refuge in her house. Through it all, her only companion, the only person to whom she can confess her mounting anger & despair, is a homeless man who one day appears on her doorstep. ...

A nine-year-old Kurdish boy plays in his village in the Persian mountains, gazing over the land of his fathers & forefathers. But when messengers from the hills bring whispers of war & rumours that the Shah`s army is on the march, he must stand alongside his villagers & fight for their l&. Years later, he can only faintly recall the brutal murder of his father & cousins. Orphaned on the battlefield, conscripted & given a new name, Reza is married & has risen up the ranks to become Captain. But there are stirrings within his heart. He will soon be sent west to Kermanshah, to rule as the Shah`s servant in the land of his birth. ...

Street plan of Agen, part of an extensive series covering French cities & towns from Blay-Foldex, the country’s largest, oldest & most experienced publisher of urban mapping. Blay plans include outer suburbs &, where appropriate, adjoining localities forming part of the urban agglomeration & provide brief descriptions of the town’s main sights, contact details for hotels & other places of interest, etc. The plans show one way streets, car parks & pedestrian zones. Important public buildings are clearly marked & identified. Blay street maps are usually double-sided & include an enlargement for the town centre & a street index with separate lists of “edifices publics”: main public buildings, places of worship, schools, sport facilities, stations, etc. Each of the outer suburbs or the adjoining localities, identified with its postcode, has a separate index. Many titles also provide a road map of the environs. All the text is in French only.PLEASE NOTE: to see the list of Blay-Foldex street plans of French towns & cities please click on the series link – the series description also

Includes:: a comparison between Blay & IGN street plans.

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Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

In the second half of the sixteenth century, most of the Christian states of Western Europe were on the defensive against a Muslim superpower
- the Empire of the Ottoman sultans. There was violent conflict, from raiding & corsairing to large-scale warfare, but there were also many forms of peaceful interaction across the surprisingly porous frontiers of these opposing power-blocs. Agents of Empire describes the paths taken through the eastern Mediterranean & its European hinterland by members of a Venetian-Albanian family, almost all of them previously invisible to history. They include an archbishop in the Balkans, the captain of the papal flagship at the Battle of Lepanto, the power behind the throne in the Ottoman province of Moldavia, & a dragoman (interpreter) at the Venetian embassy in Istanbul. Through the life-stories of these adventurous individuals over three generations, Noel Malcolm casts the world between Venice, Rome & the Ottoman Empire in a fresh light, illuminating subjects as diverse as espionage, diplomacy, the grain trade, slave-ransoming & anti-Ottoman rebellion. He describes the conflicting strategies of the Christian powers, & the extraordinarily ambitious plans of the sultans & their viziers. Few works since Fernand Braudel`s classic account of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, published more than sixty years ago, have ranged so widely through this vital period of Mediterranean & European history. With a masterpiece of scholarship as well as story-telling, Agents of Empire builds up a panoramic picture, both of Western power-politics & of the interrelations between the Christian & Ottoman worlds.
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Aggtelek
- Gömör
- Torna Karst & Cserehát Atlas from the Budapest-based Cartographia with detailed, contoured & GPS compatible

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Aghios Efstratios island in the northern Aegean Sea on a light, waterproof & tear-resistant, contoured & GPS compatible map at 1:20, 000 from Terrain Editions with extensive tourist information. All place names are shown in both Greek & Latin alphabet. Map legend & all the text include English. Maps of the Greek islands from Terrain Editions have topography well presented by contours at 20m intervals (unless indicated differently in the map`s individual description), enhanced by spot heights, subtle relief shading & additional altitude colouring. Road network is very clearly graded according to width & the type of surface, distinguishing between good & rough dirt roads. Distances are marked on most small local roads, as well as locations of petrol stations and/or tyre repair workshops; scenic routes are highlighted. Each map also shows which ports are served by ferry services. Hiking paths are graded as main or narrow trails. National parks & other protected areas are marked & a wide range of symbols indicate various places of interest & recreational facilities, with main sights clearly highlighted. Most titles distinguish between sandy & pebble beaches; some also indicate beaches with natural shade and/or the type of sea bed. The maps have a UTM grid, plus latitude & longitude margin ticks. The reverse side of each title is covered by general information about the isl&, illustrated with colour photos. Many titles also include brief descriptions of recommended hiking trails and/or a street plan of the island’s main town, with colouring clearly showing various tourist facilities. To see the other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Handy size, pocket map with street plans of Agia Napa (1:10, 100) & the nearby Paralimni (1:11;, 000) from Selas, plus road maps of the surrounding area & a map of local nature trails. Both street plans highlight accommodation & places of interest, cross-referenced to lists in the street index. Two road maps show the environs of Agia Napia with Protaras & Pernera holiday complexes at 1:24, 000, plus the south-eastern tip of Cyprus at 1:65, 000. Also included is a map of nature trails in the Cape Gkreko National Park, showing six routes of between 2km & 5km long. All place names are in Latin alphabet only with all the text in English. ...

On 25th October 1415, on a French hillside near the village of Agincourt, four men sheltered from the rain & prepared for battle. All four were English knights, ancestors of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, & part of the army of England`s King Henry V. Across the valley, four sons of the French arm of the Fiennes family were confident that the Dauphin`s army would win the day...600 years after the Battle of Agincourt, Sir Ranulph Fiennes casts new light on this epic event that has resonated throughout British & French history. He explains how his own ancestors were key players through the centuries of turbulent Anglo-French history that led up to Agincourt, & he uses his experience as expedition leader & soldier to give us a fresh perspective on one of the bloodiest periods of medieval history. With fascinating detail on the battle plans, weaponry & human drama of Agincourt, this is a gripping evocation of a historical event integral to English identity. ...