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A Book of Nonsense (Alma Quirky Classics) by Edward Lear
16.99 AUD
Category: Poetry | Series: Quirky Classics Ser.
"There was an Old Derry down Derry, Who loved to see little folks merry;So he made them a Book, And with laughter they shookAt the fun of that Derry down Derry." First published in 1846 under the pseudonym "Old Derry down Derry," A Book of Nonsense is a collection adapted from the limericks and illu ...Show more
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
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Category: Classics | Series: Quirky Classics Ser.
This essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise ...Show more
Aphorisms by Napoleon Bonaparte
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Category: Classics | Series: Quirky Classics Ser.
Spurred by a lifelong fascination with the great emperor, French novelist Honore de Balzac set himself the pains-taking task of collecting a selection of Napoleon's aphorisms from his public speeches and the gazettes of the time. Arranged into four themes (covering social life, the military arts, the e ...Show more
Dirty Limericks by ANONYMOUS
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Category: Poetry | Series: Quirky Classics
Inside these covers you will find a collection of licentious limericks which have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, some of them for over a hundred years. Until quite recently, few of these verses had ever appeared in print for public consumption, although many had been pr ...Show more
On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas De Quincey
14.99 AUD
Category: Classics | Series: Alma Quirky Classics
In this dispassionate analysis of the act of murder, De Quincey's innovative, idio-syncratic artistic vision found space for gruesome reportage, satire, aesthetic and literary criticism, in a work strewn with examples ranging from antiquity to his own time, including the urban serial-killer John William ...Show more
The Battle of the Books (Alma Quirky Classics) by Jonathan Swift
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Category: Classics | Series: Alma Quirky Classics
Inspired by Boileau's Lutrin and illustrating the debate within European intellectual circles between the "Ancients", who argued that all essential knowledge was to be found in classical texts, and the "Moderns", who claimed that contemporary learning superseded the old sources, The Battle of the Books ...Show more
The Benefit of Farting Explained by Jonathan Swift
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Category: Classics | Series: Quirky Classics Ser.
What is the nature, essence and definition of a fart? What are the consequences and disadvantages of suppressing one? Why is farting considered to be taboo? Swift's The Benefit of Farting argues eloquently, in a forceful a posteriori fashion, that most of the distempers thought to affect the fairer sex ...Show more
The Crocodile (Alma Quirky Classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14.99 AUD
Category: Classics | Series: Quirky Classics
The civil servant Ivan Matveich and his wife Yelena Ivanovna are spectators of an exhibition - in a shopping arcade - of a crocodile owned by a German, when Ivan is suddenly swallowed alive by the animal. Unsuccessful in his attempts to be freed from his prison, due to the German's concern for his croco ...Show more
The Death of a Civil Servant by Anton Chekhov
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Category: Classics | Series: Alma Quirky Classics
In 'The Death of a Civil Servant', an administrative clerk accidentally sneezes on a hierarchical superior at the opera, which results in great embarrassment and hilarious and futile attempts at atonement. The other short stories included in this volume, 'A Calculated Marriage', 'The Culprit', 'The Excl ...Show more
The Decay of Lying (Alma Quirky Classics) by Oscar Wilde
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Category: Classics | Series: Alma Quirky Classics
In the library of a country house in Nottinghamshire, Vivian is writing an article about the importance of lying, when he is interrupted by Cyril, who tries to tempt him away, but instead is drawn into a discussion about art, nature, literature and imagination. The Decay of Lying sees Wilde explore his ...Show more
The Dictionary of Received Ideas by Gustave Flaubert
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Category: Classics | Series: Alma Quirky Classics
A spoof encyclopedia of contemporary accepted wisdom and commonplaces, the Dictionary of Received Ideas sees Flaubert at his witty and satirical best. Perhaps intended as a companion to his final, unfinished novel Bouvard and Pecuchet, this compilation was the result of a lifetime of collecting the absu ...Show more
The Life of Our Lord (Alma Quirky Classics) by Charles Dickens
14.99 AUD
Category: Classics | Series: Quirky Classics Ser.
Never published in its author's lifetime and intended solely for his own children, to whom he read it every Christmas, The Life of Our Lord is an accessible and gently humorous take on the life of Jesus Christ and his teachings. Far removed from the sharp satire and social dimension of his more famous ...Show more