Найти книгу: "The Confusions of Pleasure"

The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of commercial profits and intense competition for status.<br /><br /><i>The Confusions of Pleasure</i> marks a significant departure from the conventional ways in which Chinese history has been written. Rather than recounting the Ming dynasty in a series of political events and philosophical achievements, it narrates this <i>longue duree</i> in terms of the habits and strains of everyday life. Peppered with stories of real people and their negotiations of a rapidly changing world, this book provides a new way of seeing the Ming dynasty that not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of the period but also provides an entertaining and accessible introduction to Chinese history for anyone.

Transform your love-making into erotic ecstasy with this book that unlocks the secrets of the Kama Sutra – the most ancient, renowned and explicit guide to sexual pleasure.‘Pleasures are as necessary for the well-being of the body as food.' Kama Sutra‘The Modern Kama Sutra’ opens up a new and exotic world of sexual pleasure that will change your sex life for ever.Inspired by the ancient text of the Kama Sutra, this fully illustrated book offers over 40 easy-to-follow explicit positions (try positions such as 'Splitting the Bamboo', ' The Congress of the Cow', 'Yab Yum' and the 'Canopy of Stars'), step-by step instructions and practical tips and 200 stunning colour photographs that guarantee to enhance your erotic pleasure and improve your sexual technique.‘The Modern Kama Sutra’ is for the modern couple, catering for both experienced lovers and for those wanting to experiment. You will learn how to heighten your awareness of your own and your partner’s bodies, and achieve an emotional intimacy and sexual intensity never before experienced.• Why not try fast sex sequences for instant pleasure – use all kinds of locations, from the kitchen table and bathroom shower to the living room sofa and even the office floor!• Learn how massage and intimate touching can enhance your sexual desire. Discover how to indulge the body and the senses with separate chapters on seduction, foreplay and oral sex.

Beguiling, aromatic memoirs of a cookery writer, settling in a small Normandy town, very similar in flavour to Under the Tuscan Sun.The second house that Susan Hermann Loomis looked at in the small town of Louviers was perfect. Dilapidated, rambling, crumbling walls which were covered with faded paper, it had been a convent. So Susan, her husband, luckily a sculptor and builder, and small son, moved in – to spend a year and more, rebuilding, finding new hidden treasures of their house, and discovering their neighbours, and the life of a small French town.Some of the great pleasures of the book come from sharing in Susan Loomis’ daily journeys: to the market, to the butcher and the baker, talking to the shop keepers and the teachers at the school, and meeting the clergy who tramp through their garden. As her son joins the local school, as Susan’s cookery work gets underway, so the reader is part of all the human – and gastronomic – experiences that shape this very French town.

Is pleasure selfish and are we selfish to pursue it, scientifically speaking?'I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,The lullings and relishes of it' George HerbertThis is a book about the lengths people will go to nuzzle out some pleasure – and the scientific reasons that lie behind those impulses, written in an accessible and entertaining way.Paul Martin looks at changing attitudes to pleasure over the centuries, including religious and philosophical lawgiving on the subject, before moving on to the scientific hardwiring that supports all this human frenzy. He looks too at chemical pleasures, at our attempts to bottle the pleasure-giving principle for easy access and regular self-medication – from caffeine to heroin, from tobacco to glue. Which brings us to addiction, and the darker side of pleasure's many moons – before coming back full circle to the therapeutic bliss of pleasure, its key role in an individual's health, and that least-promoted, most-undervalued but most satisfying daily pleasure of all – sweet sleep.