Bøger udgivet af Aziloth Books

Translated by Thomas Common, with introduction by Mrs Förster-Nietzsche, & notes by Anthony M. LudoviciGerman philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most influential thinkers of the late 1800s, penning critiques on philosophy, religion and social norms. Nietzsche's controversial thoughts on what he saw as religious and political repression emerged early on in his life - as a schoolboy he wrote "Very often submission to the will of God and humility are but a covering mantle for cowardly hesitation to face our destiny with determination."Thus Spake Zarathustra is Nietzsche's magnum opus on the subject of God, morality and political idealism. The legendary Persian philosopher and moralist, Zarathustra (Zoroaster), is his choice for the central character because, he says, "Zarathustra created the most portentous error, morality, consequently he should also be the first to perceive that error." So it falls on Zarathustra to turn his own original doctrine on its head. He takes on the task of seeking the truth - "to aim straight", as Nietzsche puts it - and finds his answer after much soul-searching.The book takes the form of a story in four parts, styled with a biblical cadence. Zarathustra the radical thinker comes down from his mountain cave and attempts to persuade the people to throw off their stifling preconceptions of God and other-worldly hopes. He entreats them to dispense with life-denying concepts such as pity, humility, guilt, and to seek instead the superman, or übermensch, in themselves. This 'beyond man' would move past the human condition and would create his own life-affirming values and purpose.Thus Spake Zarathustra remains a provocative work - and is all the more valuable for it.

Born in India, Rudyard Kipling is renowned for his varied exciting tales of the sub-continent. Less well-known is the Nobel laureate's attachment to the United States and especially to Vermont, where he lived (in Brattleboro) for over four years. Here he made the acquaintance of Dr. James Conland who had fished with the Grand Banks fleet as a youth. Dr. Conland's nautical reminiscences sparked Kipling's creative mind and, "rejoicing to escape from the dread respectability of our little town" the two men ran off to "the shore front, and to the old T-wharf of Boston Harbour, and to queer meals in sailors' eating-houses… we boarded every craft that looked as if she might be useful, and we delighted ourselves to the limit of delight."Captains Courageous is the fruit of Kipling's Boston escapade. It charts the tale of Harvey Cheyne, a rich, spoilt 15 year-old, who falls from an ocean-going liner, is rescued by the fishing boat We're Here - and is forced to spend the next three months with the crew, earning his living as a deck-hand among the huge waves and treacherous currents of the Grand Banks. The experience is the making of Harvey, transforming the pampered, boastful boy into a self-reliant young man who knows the value - and the responsibilities - of friendship and honest work. A unique book of American adventure from the archetypal Indian writer.

For Lebanese-American writer and artist, Khalil Gibran, Jesus the Son of Man was the most challenging and cherished of all his works. "My art can find no better resting place than the personality of Jesus. …He shall always be the supreme figure of all ages and in Him we shall always find mystery, passion, love, imagination, tragedy, beauty, romance and truth."It was always Gibran's ambition to re-tell the story of Jesus in an unconventional way, to paint a more rounded picture of a spiritual leader he deeply revered and this he did through the eyes of Jesus' contemporaries. He selects some familiar biblical characters, such as Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist and adds a number of fictional ones, among them a cobbler, an astronomer and a philosopher. The seventy-seven voices, presented as short chapters, explore facets of Jesus, Gibran-style, and from these testaments we get a glimpse of how Christ might have been perceived at the time by those around Him.Jesus the Son of Man is rated by many critics as Gibran's most inspirational work, more so even than The Prophet.

H G Wells is one of the 'fathers' of Science Fiction. His novel 'The First Men in the Moon' chronicles humanity's first faltering steps to the stars. The story uses a human-meets-alien adventure to juxtapose two characters whose temperaments personify the extremes of scientific endeavour - the disinterested researcher and the seeker after fame and fortune. Wells' description of spaceflight, including weightlessness, low-gravity gymnastics on the moon and re-entry angles for returning spacecraft, have all proved amazingly prescient. His books have retained their popularity with the public for more than a century.

'Orlando' is a historical fantasy in which the eponymous hero remains alive for over three centuries, but ages physically just 36 years. Over this huge span of time, Orlando has many strange adventures, chief among them being his sex-change from a man to a woman. Woolf uses this bizarre and intriguing notion to examine many aspects of human existence: the difference between fact and imagination; the utility of poetry and art; how humans conform to whatever civilization of group they find themselves in; and (a central theme of the book) the gender roles which society imposes so unjustly upon men and women, when - in Woolf's view - the two sexes have in reality very similar dreams and aspirations.