The Royal Palaces of Spain

Customer Reviews:

Exquisite tome.......2001-07-15

This is a beautiful book in every way. It looks grand and the workmanship is supurb. The photography is stunning. The book does a commendable job of presenting the best of the great palaces of Spain. Spain has a rich history of palace building, from the Philip II's austere El Escorial to Phillip V's baroque Palacio Real and it is on breathtaking display in this excellent book. If you have any interest in Spanish architecture or of European architecture in general I strongly recommend you get this book. The price may be a bit daunting, but if you enjoy fine books you won't be disappointed.

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De La Rebelio a La Utopia Photos From
Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Galgiani, Phillip
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Falco (Prosa contemporanea)
Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Editorial Katun
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Grandes Hoteles de Espana - Bilingue
Angel Miguelsanz , and Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Lunwerg Editores
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Humberto Rivas
Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Lunwerg Editores
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Humberto Rivas. El Fotograf del Silenci
David Balsells
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 8480431636

Humberto Rivas: Los Misterios de la Realidad

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Humberto Rivas: Los Misterios de la Realidad
Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Lunwerg Editores
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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La Sombra Del Aguila Cinedramatizacion
Humberto Rivas
Manufacturer: Ediciones Germinal
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J47IWK

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Lleida Panorama

Manufacturer: Lleida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000E0EMYQ

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Geometria Analitica
Rosa E. Ponce Vazquez , and Humberto Rivera Rivas
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Interamericana
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Set in the exotic, seductive world of pre-revolutionary Iran, IN THE WALLED GARDENS tells the nostalgic and moving story of Mahastee and Reza, who loved each other as children but have not seen each other for 20 years.Mahastee, who has become trapped by the privileged society she has grown up in, is struggling to keep her identity in the face of the increasingly empty role she inhabits. Reza has grown up to become a Marxist revolutionary, leading underground meetings and living on the edge. When chance brings the two together again, their encounters are a portrait not only of an ill-fated love, but of two worlds at odds, moving ever closer to a doomed collision.

Customer Reviews:

A book you must read........2006-07-31

This is one of the best books I have read in a while. The character development and interplay and the attention to detail is incredible. I cannot believe this is Mrs. Firouz's first novel. I was unable to put this book down and it was difficult to part with these characters once I finished the reading. I bought a copy for my aunt, and she loved it too, and told me how much it reminded her of Iran (pre-revolution). I am so proud of the author and her contribution to Iranian writing.

In the walled gardens.......2002-10-28

The book paints a very perceptive picture of pre-revolution Iran through the eyes of a sensitive upper class house-wife and a left wing radical. The love story though poignant is almost incidental.This novel has resonances in many countries of the region both in the Middle East and Asia of that period. The author has done an outstanding job. In the walled garden( or is it pairi daeza?) is a book difficult to put down.

Tragic tale of history's web.......2002-10-15

"Exile is its own country," Anahita Firouz write in this, her debut novel. Set in the brewing years of the Iranian revolution, it follows two people's lives, Mahastee and Reza, friends as children, who have now been inextricably tied in to the politics of their land. Warning to all who may have a mistaken view of where this is going: this novel is definitely not a love story! It is much more about the history of a place, and its people, about how much we can and cannot control our own destinies.

Reading this novel you can almost feel the wind rush off the Alborz mountains, feel the sense of impending doom that is about to crash down on these characters and their countryside. While it takes a few chapters to get truly involved in their story, you'll find it hard to put down once you are. And believe me, it's worth it...this book as the most heartbreakingly realistic ending I have ever read.

Masterful story about a different edge to revolution.......2002-10-08

I've read several novels that are set against the backdrop of the Iranian revolution, and typically they're characterized by straightforward good vs. bad mentalities, and in the end, the two protagonists always end up in each others' arms. Not so with this masterpiece by Firouz. Don't be fooled by some of the editorial reviews and book jacket comments...this is not a romance. It's more a story of exile, of what happens when a country's politics end up shutting out an entire generation of people. And that's the book's power and beauty.

Mahastee and Reza are both smart enough to recognize that ultimately they have chosen their fates, and to realize that whatever they might do, by virtue of social class, revolutionary association, etc., their fates are now out of their hands. It's what makes this book profound and tragic, and ultimately, the most realistic book you'll ever read about 1979 Iran.

deep look at Iran just before the Khomeini revolution.......2002-08-13

In the late 1970s in Iran, Mahastee Mosharraf is a member of the mid-echelon of the upper class. Her husband Houshang runs a contracting firm that succeeds by bribing the right people. Houshang and Mahastee provide a civil public face, but have not shared sex in years.

At work, Mahastee finds out that the Shah's secret police arrested the son of a co-worker for rumors of participating in Marxist activity. Unable to ignore it, Mahastee uses her place in society that has given her substantial contacts within the government contacts to learn what happened to the incarcerated man. Mahastee discovers that the state prisoner was part of a Marxist revolutionary group. Her investigation leads to Mahastee meeting childhood friend and Marxist Reza Nirvani. Reza and Mahastee share a hatred of the Shah, which is enough to lead to an affair at the same time that the country's social and political order begins to collapse.

This is an exciting look at a moment just prior to a pivotal event in the twentieth century. The story line provides a deep look at Iran just before the Khomeini revolution. Though readers will feel little empathy or attachment to Mahastee, Reza, or Houshang, fans of late historical tales will enjoy this vivid description of the late 1970s in Iran.

Harriet Klausner

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The Walled Garden of Truth: The Hadiqa

Full of Well-Cut Gems of Wisdom

A Beautiful, Well-Interpreted Selection of Sanai's Poetry

A collection of disjoint excerpts taken out of context.

The Walled Garden of Truth: The Hadiqa
Abu Al-Majd Majdud Ibn Adam Sanai Al-Ghaznavi , and Hakim Sanai
Manufacturer: Octagon Press, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Conference of Birds (Penguin Classics)

Four Sufi Classics: Salaman and Absal/The Niche for Lights/The Way of the Seeker/The Abode of Spring

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The Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Order

ASIN: 0900860359

Customer Reviews:

The Walled Garden of Truth: The Hadiqa.......2005-09-20

This book contains a very good extract of the original translation in english, but, it's not the complete text, although the reader can get the essence of the text and some aspects of sufism, with a very good explanation in very simple words, you can read it again and again, as all the sufi texts, with each reading you can find more and more aspects.

Full of Well-Cut Gems of Wisdom.......2004-10-07

Regarding the issue of excerpting "out of context," it must be pointed out that the publisher, Octagon Press, is a major promoter of classic texts that were recommended as teaching materials by the late Idries Shah, a renowned Naqshbandi sufi. Clearly, they feel that Pendlebury's excerpts are useful.

I read once that Sanai can be considered a balance to the study of Rumi, or even an antidote for people who see Rumi primarily as a source of effusive Lover/Beloved passages. Sanai is more pointed and direct but equally compassionate and brilliant. He emphasizes not only devotion and purity of heart but also clarifying one's perception to transcend duality.

Permit me to quote a small segment of Pendlebury's translation which is perhaps as significant in this era of mistrust between religions as it was 850 years ago:

"If you want the mirror to reflect the face,
hold it straight and keep it polished bright;
although the sun does not begrudge its light,
when seen in a mist it only looks like glass;
and creatures comelier than angels even
seem in a dagger to have devils' faces.
Your dagger will never tell you true from false;
it will never serve you as a mirror."

A Beautiful, Well-Interpreted Selection of Sanai's Poetry.......2001-09-19

Very little of what Sanai wrote has been translated. Pendlebury did an excellent job at assimilating excerts of Sanai's poetry into a easily readible fashion for Westerners in The Walled Garden Of Truth. At times the poetry definately doesn't flow smoothly from one stanza to a next but that is only because of difficulties in matching the Persian with the English in passages left out. Pendlebury's goal was to make this book as 'clear' as possible not as 'thick'. This book, while less complete, is much more clear and easier to understand than Major Stephenson's much more sporadic attempt at the Hadiqa. So its a matter of funtcion, if you are looking for a complete book of Sanai's read Stephenson's translation of the Hadiqa which will leave you trying to make meaning of far too much grammar or Pendlebury's easily transmissible and understandable, but shorter, translation here. I prefer the latter.

Sanai's book is a message to man or a seeker after knowledge to abandon his foolish ways and turn towards his Maker. The content and language is brilliant and I'am lucky I was exposed to this material. I hope if you are at all interested in Sufi studies that you will give it a shot.

A collection of disjoint excerpts taken out of context........1998-09-18

The title of this book is misleading. Not only is it limited to the first of the seven books of the Hadiqa, but even that book is abridged mercilessly. It is a loose collection of short phrases quoted out of context, selected by the translator Mr. Pendlebury. As such, it reveals more about the views of the translator himself than about those of Sanai. The only thing worth reading is the 20-some page introduction to Sofu poetry, but even then, it is overpriced. Stay clear of that book. Try, instead, to find Major Stephenson's translation entitled "The first book of the Hadiqa: the enclosed garden of truth", which has an honest title for an accurate, unabridged translation of the first book only. I believe Stephenson's book is out of print, I could only find a copy in the library.

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The Walled Garden
Catherine Dunne
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Another Kind of Life

ASIN: 0330396072

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I wept. Beautiful. The epitome of Sufi mysticism.

The Walled Garden of Truth
of Ghazni, SanAI
Manufacturer: E P Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0525474145

Customer Reviews:

I wept. Beautiful. The epitome of Sufi mysticism........2000-02-11

Words fail me, compared to the treasure found in this book. I found this slim innocuous tome in a second-hand bookstore. It speaks of the highest truths man can hope to achieve. An unbelievably powerful and beautifully written book. It is a pearl that God led me to. I hope you find this treasure too.

The Walled Garden: The Story of a School

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The Walled Garden: The Story of a School
Charles Merrill
Manufacturer: Rowan Tree Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Walled Garden

Manufacturer: Harlequin Romance
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 037301287X

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The Walled Garden
Rosemary Enright
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312094094

Book Description

Diana Neville, caught in the spotlight of scandal by her husband's fraud and imprisonment, retreats with her daughter to her ancestral home, Gilbert's Tower. Its garden, resplendent with rare fruit trees and flowers, breathes new life into her soul and inspires her to distribute the luscious organic cornucopia to stores and restaurants. Diana soon finds herself a successful, prominent businesswoman, making it in a competitive world. But shattering conflict consumes her as her husband plots to destroy her. She must turn for help to a man who is her fiercest rival in business...a man who dares to claim her heart.

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From Behind the Walled Garden

From Behind the Walled Garden
F. A. Adams
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0595215076

Book Description

This is a story of love, passion, and political upheaval at the turn of the century in Persia. A young woman struggles against oppression in her society as a revolution rages on between constitutionalists and monarchists. Torn between two loves, Princess Yasamin struggles to keep her own identity in this poetic and sensitive tale.

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Customer Reviews:

From Behind the Walled Garden.......2002-10-12

I love history and romance and this book had both. Informative historical facts on Persia(Iran) which gives you a lot to think about. The research on this book reminds me of the research Mary Jo Putney does, ie Veils of Silk. I have read all of Mary Jo Putney's books. She is one of my favorite authors.

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Beyond the walled garden
Wendy Fletcher-Marsh
Manufacturer: Artemis Enterprises
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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