Books published by Aziloth Books

A best-seller from its first publication in 1898, this autobiography of St. Thérèse and her "Little Way" to God, has since been translated into 55 languages. St. Thérèse became a Carmelite nun at 15, and died at the early age of 24. But her life was filled with such wisdom and Holiness that she was not only canonized, but declared a Doctor of the Church.In a collection of three manuscripts, St. Thérèse tells first of her life as a child, of her intimate relationship with Jesus, and of her struggles to become a Carmelite nun. The second section reveals the Saint's Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, the Way of Trust and Absolute Self-Surrender - her method of achieving great holiness in ordinary life. We are urged to love God for God's sake, not our own, and to seek ways of offering small sacrifices each day, whether it be accepting discomfort or being kind to someone we dislike. In the final manuscript St. Thérèse describes her later life - which included her own Dark Night of the Soul - until just three months before her death from tuberculosis, an event narrated with great compassion in the final chapter, written by The Prioress of the Carmel.Also included in this edition are a series of Letters, Poems and Prayers by the Saint. An inspiring and uplifting book, essential reading for any soul seeking to establish - or renew - a more intimate relation with the Godhead.

Those seeking a handle on the nature of modern capitalism and war, can do no better than to start with this incisive analysis by Lenin - it still applies, writ large, today.Ideologically a Marxist, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, (better known as Lenin), wrote copiously on political and economic systems, passionately believing in the need for a total rejection of capitalism by the proletariat worldwide.Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism looks at how Western capitalism in the mid-1800s transitioned inexorably from small businesses competing with one another into huge monopolies that concentrated labour, industry, natural resources and bank finance. Competition, a core element of capitalism, was a casualty of this process and most of the profits went to a top strata of society. Because the system was inherently growth-driven, the powerful oligarchy of financiers, industrialists and governments sought new prospects outside of their native countries in the form of a territorial 'land grab' backed by military might. This last inexorable stage of capitalism saw the world's undeveloped countries carved up between the likes of Great Britain, France and Germany and was, in Lenin's view, the very essence of imperialism, a state of affairs to be countered at all costs.

Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale takes to intriguing extremes the widely-held belief that everyone has good and bad sides. First published in 1886, the story is justly famous; it has spawned countless stage and film adaptations and "Jekyll and Hyde" has entered the English language as an epithet for someone whose personality oscillates between extremes. Stevenson's tale was inspired by the true story of Edinburgh cabinet maker and locksmith, William (Deacon) Brodie, a respected businessman by day and thief by night. Brodie was caught and hanged in 1788, on gallows that many believe he himself helped to design.

This classic work of Chinese mysticism was written over 2500 years ago. It author was Li Er, an enlightened sage and scholar known to the world as Lao Tzu (Venerable Master), who espoused a philosophy of the Way, or 'Tao': a method of non-striving existence, an effortless 'going with the flow'. Poetic, Humorous, Wise, Deep-hearted, and at times frustratingly enigmatic, the 'Tao Te Jing' is required reading for any student of mysticism and philosophy. It is also the perfect antidote to our contemporary materialist culture of acquisition and self-aggrandisement.

The son of a London merchant, Thomas Browne settled in Norwich in 1637, practising medicine and interesting himself in a wide variety of subjects, upon which his pen was rarely silent. Browne's style is complex and multilayered, deeply humane, and shot through with Classical and Biblical references. It also abounds in neologisms and he is credited with inventing more than 700 words, many - such a 'electricity' and 'computer' - still in common usage today. Thomas Browne remains one of Britain's most original writers, with a host of admirers, including such literary 'Greats' as Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, and W. G. Sebald. 'Hydriotaphia' (Urn Burial) is ostensibly an essay on ancient burial customs, but swiftly morphs into a study, at once witty and profound, on Death and humanity's vain longing for an 'immortal name': "The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction…"The second volume, 'The Garden of Cyrus', follows the pattern of the first, posing as an exposition on the importance of the 'Quincunciall' or 'Net-pattern' in both Nature and human culture, but gradual revealing itself as both a fascinating record of 17th century natural history and an insightful meditation on Life and Mysticism.Browne's celebrated 'A Letter to a Friend' takes the form of a traditional 17th century mourning letter, but the melancholy subject is transformed by the author's wit, humour and polished Baroque eloquence into an entrancing work of art. The essay came to light only after his death on October 19th 1682 which - strangely for a man obsessed with numerology - occurred exactly 77 years after his birth, on October 19th 1605.

Better known as a Founding Father of the United States, and its third president, Thomas Jefferson maintained an abiding interest in philosophy and religion. In 1804 he conceived the idea of collating the story of Jesus found in the four Gospels, and of dissecting away their more wordy and (for him) overly-magical aspects, so as to reveal the fundamental tenets of the moral system promulgated by Christ.Following a false start, and many delays, he began anew in 1819 and produced the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, the essential ethical philosophy of the Saviour, shorn of miracles or supernatural interventions. For Jefferson it was enough: there remained "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man… A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen."This is a book for anyone interested in Christianity and the root-precepts of its founder. There is much to ponder here for both Believer and sceptic alike.