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In Hamburg, Professor Lidenbrock, a hot-tempered scientist, deciphers an old parchment with his nephew Axel. In it, an Icelandic alchemist claims to have gone down to the centre of the Earth through the crater of a volcano. The professor sets off at once for Iceland with Axel, who is not at all reassured, and there hires Hans, a guide as calm as he is sturdy. Underground, they discover endless tunnels, a vast sea and creatures long extinct. Jules Verne blends science and imagination so well that you believe in every stage of the journey. Told by Axel, with humour and suspense, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In a quiet little town in the American West at the start of the twentieth century, two childhood friends have an idea: to make everyone believe that the town is going to become a big city. As long as people believe it, land prices rise. They buy land, lay out a new district and bring in the railway. A humorous satire about easy money, friendship and the fever of speculation. Its lively tone and plentiful dialogue make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

To escape his father, a violent drunkard, and the widow who wants to turn him into a well-behaved boy, Huckleberry Finn fakes his own death. He travels down the Mississippi on a raft with Jim, a runaway slave. Along the river they meet swindlers, feuding families and towns full of danger. In his own boyish words, Huck tells the story of a friendship that overturns everything he has been taught. Hemingway said that all modern American literature comes from this book. With the translation always in front of you, Huck's colourful way of talking and his adventures are a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

After a shipwreck, Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, wakes up on a beach, tied to the ground by tiny cords: he is among the Lilliputians, a people six inches tall. On later voyages, he in turn becomes tiny in the land of the giants, then discovers a flying island and a country ruled by horses gifted with reason. Behind its fairy-tale air, it is a humorous satire of mankind and its quarrels. The book even left a word in the dictionary: “Lilliputian”. Gulliver tells of his travels like a ship's log, and this great classic is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Born on the banks of the Tormes into a wretched family, little Lázaro becomes the guide of a blind beggar, his first master. So as not to starve, he learns to steal from him: he drinks his wine through a straw and makes off with his sausage. He then serves a miserly priest, then a ruined squire who hides his poverty behind his fine clothes. Published without the author's name in 1554, then banned by the Inquisition, this short tale full of cunning and dark humour is the very first picaresque novel. Lázaro tells his own adventures mischievously, and the short chapters are easy to read in the language you are learning.

In Edinburgh in 1751, young David Balfour has just come into his inheritance. He wants to testify to save an innocent man accused of a political murder, but the men in power have already chosen their culprit, and they mean to stop David from speaking. At the same time, he meets Catriona Drummond, a strong-willed young woman from the Highlands. Plots, danger and a love story mix in the troubled Scotland of the eighteenth century, where David meets up again with Alan Breck, his rebellious, swaggering friend. Told by David himself, with plenty of dialogue, it is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In Andalusia, a scholarly traveller meets a wanted bandit, Don José, and then, in Córdoba, a gypsy woman who tells fortunes: Carmen. Months later, he finds Don José in prison, on the eve of his execution, and listens to him tell his life story. A young soldier marked out for promotion, Don José lost everything the day he met Carmen. Free and defiant, Carmen gives in to no one: she has become one of the most famous heroines in the world, so much so that her name alone stands for passion. You can read this short story in one sitting in the language you are learning.

The only survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe is washed up on a desert island. With what he saves from the wreck, he builds a shelter, learns to grow grain and keep goats, and counts the days by cutting notches in a post. One day, after years alone, he finds the print of a bare foot on the beach. It is the first great survival novel, the one that inspired every castaway story since, and the name of Friday has become as famous as Robinson's. Robinson tells his own adventure, like a diary, and the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

John Carter, a former officer from Virginia, takes refuge in a cave in Arizona and suddenly finds himself on Mars. Because gravity there is weaker, he makes huge leaps and becomes astonishingly strong. Captured by giant green warriors, he wins their respect, then meets Dejah Thoris, a princess who is a prisoner like him. This novel, the first in a long series of adventures on Mars, has inspired generations of science fiction writers. Fights, friendship and love follow one another without a dull moment. Told by John Carter himself, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

At seventeen, the Chevalier des Grieux, a young man from a good family, meets the beautiful Manon Lescaut in Amiens, as she is being taken to a convent. He runs off with her at once and gives up everything for her: his family, his fortune, his honour. Through escapes, cheating at cards and spells in prison, he will follow her all the way to Louisiana. Manon loves des Grieux, but she also loves luxury, and that is her whole mystery: you never know whether she will betray him or follow him. Published in 1731, it remains one of the finest stories of passion in literature. Told by des Grieux himself, it can be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

The secret son of King Uther, young Arthur is brought up by the knight Ector without knowing anything of his birth. At fifteen, he pulls from a stone the sword that no lord had been able to move, and becomes king. Around the Round Table, Lancelot, Tristram and Galahad set off on adventures and on the quest for the Grail. Merlin, Excalibur, Camelot: these legends, retold here from Thomas Malory, have inspired countless stories of knights. Told in a clear, lively style, they are a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Twelve new cases of Sherlock Holmes, told by his friend Dr Watson. Holmes finds a famous missing racehorse, tells Watson about his very first case, and introduces him to his brother Mycroft, who is even better at observation than he is. The collection ends with his confrontation with Professor Moriarty, “the Napoleon of crime”, one of the most famous episodes in detective fiction. You can read each case in one sitting, and the lively dialogue makes them an ideal read in the language you are learning.

Hank Morgan, a foreman in a Connecticut arms factory, gets a blow on the head and wakes up in King Arthur's England, in the sixth century. Sentenced to be burnt at the stake, he saves himself by announcing an eclipse of the sun whose date he knows, and is at once taken for a magician more powerful than Merlin. Now known as “the Boss”, he brings the telegraph, newspapers and schools to the Knights of the Round Table. Mark Twain has fun with this clash between two eras, in one of the very first time-travel novels. Full of humour and lively dialogue, the novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Everyone believed Sherlock Holmes was dead. Yet he reappears in London, before Dr Watson's eyes, and takes up his cases again: drawings of little dancing men that hide a secret message, busts of Napoleon smashed one after another, a marksman lying in wait for him in an empty house. Thirteen cases in which the smallest detail becomes a clue. With their lively dialogue and clear sentences, they can each be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

On Mars, Thuvia, Princess of Ptarth, is kidnapped, and Carthoris, the son of John Carter, is accused. To find her and clear his name, he crosses the deserts to Lothar, a forgotten city whose inhabitants can summon armies of phantom bowmen by the power of thought. This fourth novel in the Mars series hands over to a new generation of heroes, amid battles, jealous rivals and strange cities. Fast-paced from start to finish, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

One June evening in London, the American millionaire Theodore Racksole dines with his daughter Nella at the Grand Babylon, the smartest hotel in town. The head waiter refuses to serve them steak and beer, which he thinks unworthy of the house: Racksole buys the hotel that very evening. He soon discovers that its corridors hide a disappearance and a plot involving European princes. A humorous adventure novel in which a businessman leads the investigation himself, helped by his daughter Nella, who is as bold as he is. Fast-paced and full of twists, the novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Father Brown, a small priest with an absent-minded air, solves the crimes the police cannot understand. One day, an American visitor finally asks him for his secret. The priest's answer is surprising: to find the culprit, he puts himself in his shoes, to the point of imagining that he committed the crime himself. This collection brings together eight short cases, such as “The Mirror of the Magistrate” and “The Man with Two Beards”. In Chesterton's stories, cleverness counts for less than knowledge of the human heart. You can read each case in one sitting in the language you are learning.

One Sunday in November, Augustin Meaulnes, a daring teenager, arrives at the school in Sainte-Agathe and fascinates François, the schoolmaster's son. During an escapade, Meaulnes gets lost and comes to a mysterious estate where a strange celebration is being prepared. There he meets a young woman he will never stop searching for. A novel of adolescence, dreams and nostalgia, which keeps alive the memory of that moment when we believe anything is possible. François tells the story as a memory, and the novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

This collection brings together three sea stories. In “Youth”, Marlow remembers his first voyage as an officer, on a battered old cargo ship that catches fire on the way to the East. In “Typhoon”, Captain MacWhirr, a man without imagination, takes his steamer into the heart of a terrible storm, with two hundred Chinese labourers in the hold. In “The Secret Sharer”, a young captain hides a stranger on board, a man who swam up to the ship in the middle of the night. Conrad, who was a sailor for twenty years, makes you feel the sea like no one else: the danger, the captain's loneliness, the courage of ordinary men. With the translation always in front of you, you can discover them in the language you are learning.

The Trojans have reached the Greek ships, and fire threatens the fleet. Patroclus, Achilles' friend, is allowed to wear his armour to drive them back, but he falls at Hector's hands. Mad with grief, Achilles returns to battle, with armour forged by the god Hephaestus, and seeks out Hector beneath the walls of Troy. This second volume contains the most famous pages of the poem, those of mourning, of vengeance and of the pity an enemy can still inspire. Nearly three thousand years later, they have lost none of their force. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great tale in the language you are learning.

One summer around 1880, Friedl, a young royal gamekeeper, watches over the game in the mountains of Bavaria, near the little village of Fall, on the River Isar. He is tracking a poacher who kills chamois and roe deer, and who can be recognised by the nine nails in the soles of his shoes. Friedl loves Modei, who tends cows in a mountain hut and is the mother of a little boy. But the child's father, Blasi, also has nine nails in the soles of his shoes. A novel of love and hunting, full of the simple life of Bavarian villages and mountain pastures. Simply written, with vivid scenes, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

On the liner bringing him back from New York, Arthur Marcel, a well-off Englishman, meets Herbert Brande, a brilliant scientist who believes the universe is a mistake. Arthur is fascinated by Natalie, the scientist's sister. To stay close to her, he joins the secret society that Brande leads, and discovers that its members communicate by thought. They want to destroy the Earth with the energy locked inside atoms. Written in 1895, long before the atomic bomb, this strange novel already imagines science becoming a threat to the whole world. Told in the first person, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

The three Rover brothers, Dick, Tom and Sam, are spending the end of the summer at Valley Brook, the family farm in New York State. A trip into the mountains leads them to a cave where thieves hide their loot, while two swindlers steal their Uncle Randolph's bonds. Then come their last months at Putnam Hall, a military boarding school: rivalries between pupils, races in the snow and Christmas at the farm. A cheerful adventure about friendship and courage, from a series that thrilled generations of young readers. Its lively dialogue and light tone make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

During the First World War, a German Zeppelin loses its observation car one night, and the car falls near a small town in Norfolk, on the English coast. The next day, a stranger calls on Philippa, Lady Cranston. Philippa's brother is a prisoner in Germany, and this man, who helped him there, brings her news of him. But the stranger serves the enemy, and he asks to live in the town under a false name. Torn between her duty to her country, her love for her brother and her attraction to this stranger, Philippa must choose. Told with elegance and suspense, this spy novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.