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This volume contains two unusual and appealing satirical works by the well-known European philosopher Kolakowski. The first, Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia, is set in a fictional land.
Each story illustrates some aspect of human inability to come to terms with imperfection, infinitude, history, and nature. The second, The Key to Heaven, is a collection of seventeen biblical tales from the Old Testament told in such a way that the story and the moral play off each other to illustrate political, moral, or existential foibles and follies.

Table of Contents:

TALES FROM THE KINGDOM OF LAILONIA
Looking for Lailonia
The Hump
A Tale about Children's Toys
A Beautiful Face
How Gyom Became an Elderly Gentleman
The Famous One
How the Divine Maior Lost His Throne
The Red Patch
The War with Things
How the Problem of Longevity Was Solved
Outrageous Mints
The Story of the Greatest Quarrel
A Tale of Great Shame
THE KEY TO HEAVEN
God, or the Contradictions Between the Motives and the Consequences of Human Action
The People of Israel, or the Consequences of Unselfishness Cain, or the Interpretation of the Principle "To Each According to His Merits"
Noah, or the Temptations of Solidarity Lot's Wife, or the Appeal of the Past Sarah, or the Conflict Between the General and the Personal in Morality Abraham, or Lofty Grief Esau, or the Relation of Philosophy to Trade
God, or the Relativism of Mercy Balaam, or the Problem of Objective Guilt
King Saul, or Two Kinds of Consistency in Life
Rahab, or Real and Imagined Solitude Job, or the Contradictions of Virtue King Herod, or the Misery of the Moralist
Ruth, or the Dialogue Between Love and Bread
Jael, or Heroism Gone Astray
Solomon, or Men as Gods
Salome, or All Men Are Mortal

About the Author:

LESZEK KOLAKOWSKI

Born in Radom in 1927, Kolakowski is the outstanding living Polish philosopher. He has lived in exile since 1968 and is currently a Fellow of All Saints' College at Oxford.

His primary interest is the history of philosophy, especially since the eighteenth century liberalism, the philosophy of culture, and the philosophy of religion. Aside from philosophical texts, Kolakowski has written literary works. These, however, are closely associated with the author's professional concerns, and would have to be classed as philosophical tales (THIRTEEN TALES FROM THE KINGDOM OF LAILONIA and CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEVIL).
In these tales, Kolakowski uses an accessible and attractive literary form to analyze philosophical problems and paradoxes and to present discussions among different philosophical schools and doctrines. These stories are marked by intelligent wit and a mastery of literary conventions and styles, especially in the BIBLICAL TALES.

Kolakowski's books long appeared in Poland in underground editions, playing a prominent role in shaping the Polish intellectual opposition. Especially significant was the essay THE CHAPLAIN AND THE JESTER, which analyzed the attitudes of the intelligentsia toward authority. The first text of Kolakowski's to be confiscated by the censor - and, subsequently, the first to begin to function underground - was the 1956 manifesto "What is Socialism?", which he wrote for "Po prostu" magazine. In 1996, Leszek Kolakowski recorded ten short lectures on issues in the philosophy of culture (on authority, tolerance, betrayal, equality, fame, and falsehood, among others) for Polish Television. These were then published in book form as MINI-LECTURES ON MAXI-ISSUES.