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In the America of the Roaring Twenties, the mysterious Jay Gatsby throws huge parties every weekend at his mansion by the water. His young neighbour gradually discovers what lies behind all this luxury: a youthful love that Gatsby has never forgotten. Beyond the love story, this short novel by Fitzgerald paints a critical portrait of a society fascinated by money and appearances. Fitzgerald writes with elegance and clarity, and his novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In the English countryside, Mrs Bennet has only one idea: to marry off her five daughters. The arrival of Mr Bingley, a rich young man, in the neighbourhood delights her, but his friend Mr Darcy is cold and proud from the very first ball. Elizabeth, the second of the sisters, lively and teasing, takes an instant dislike to him. Its witty exchanges and amused eye on families and marriages make it one of the best loved comedies in literature. With the translation always in front of you, Jane Austen's elegant, ironic style is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In Marseille in 1815, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on the day of his engagement, on a false accusation. Locked up without trial in the Château d'If, he meets the Abbé Faria, an old prisoner who educates him and reveals the existence of a hidden treasure. Years later, a rich and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo appears in Paris, among the very people who betrayed him. It is the most famous revenge story in literature, full of disguises and dramatic twists. With its lively dialogue and a new turn in every chapter, the novel is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

On Prince Edward Island, a brother and sister were expecting a boy from the orphanage to help them on the farm. Instead, a little red-haired girl arrives: Anne, talkative, dreamy and full of imagination. She shakes up the quiet life of Green Gables, and slowly wins everyone's heart. A radiant novel full of humour about childhood, friendship and the need to be loved, which has enchanted generations of readers. Its lively dialogue makes it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

Paris, 1482: during the Feast of Fools, the beautiful Esmeralda dances in the Place de Grève. Quasimodo, the cathedral's hunchbacked bell-ringer, and the archdeacon Claude Frollo, who brought him up, are both overwhelmed by her. From the Court of Miracles to the pillory, the young woman becomes the object of dangerous passions. Hugo brings medieval Paris back to life around the cathedral. The novel made Quasimodo one of the most famous characters in literature, and helped to save the cathedral, which was then badly run down. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great novel by Victor Hugo in the language you are learning.

In 1805, in the salons of St Petersburg, everyone is talking about Napoleon. Pierre Bezukhov, an awkward young man who is about to inherit a huge fortune, is looking for meaning in his life. His friend, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, goes off to war to escape boredom, while young Natasha Rostova is bursting with joie de vivre. From Austerlitz to the burning of Moscow, Tolstoy weaves together great battles and family life, love and war. We watch his characters grow up, love, make mistakes and change, like people we know. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great novel in the language you are learning.

Released after nineteen years in prison with hard labour for stealing a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean is turned away everywhere, until the evening a bishop takes him in. Now a changed man living under a false name, he takes in little Cosette, mistreated by the Thénardiers, and brings her up in hiding. Inspector Javert, for his part, does not believe a convict can change. Around them, Victor Hugo brings a whole century back to life, right up to the barricades of Paris. One of his characters even became a word in French: a cheeky Paris street urchin is still called a “gavroche”. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great classic in the language you are learning.

In an English village, Emma Woodhouse, young, beautiful, rich and sure of herself, amuses herself by arranging other people's marriages. She takes under her wing Harriet, a young woman with no fortune, and decides to find her a husband in her own way. But Emma reads hearts badly, starting with her own. A comedy full of misunderstandings, in which Jane Austen gently mocks her heroine, and we laugh at her mistakes before recognising ourselves in them. Its witty dialogue is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In sixteenth-century London, Tom Canty, a poor boy whose father beats him, dreams of seeing a real prince. One day, at the palace gates, he is noticed by Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII. The two boys look as alike as twins. For fun, they swap clothes, and the guards throw the real prince out into the street. Tom has to play the prince without knowing anything about the court, while Edward discovers hunger, thieves and the injustice of his own kingdom. An adventure full of humour, in which each boy learns about the other's life. Full of twists and turns, this classic is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In Paris, a ghost haunts the Opera: he demands that Box Five be kept for him and threatens the managers by letter. Christine Daaé, a young Swedish singer, secretly takes lessons from a mysterious voice she calls the Angel of Music. Her childhood friend, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, wants to find out who is behind this voice. A chandelier that falls in the middle of a performance, a mask, tunnels under the stage: Gaston Leroux created a character famous all over the world, both frightening and touching. Told like an investigation and full of suspense, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In Cranford, a small country town, almost every house is kept by ladies, often poor, who never talk about money. The narrator, Mary Smith, spends long stays there with Miss Matty, the shy and very kind daughter of the late rector. Along the way we meet a cow dressed in flannel, a love turned down long ago and a fear of burglars that spreads through the whole town. Elizabeth Gaskell tells of these small lives with gentle humour. A funny, touching book about quiet kindness and helping one another. Made up of short scenes, like so many visits, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In the north of England, Mr Earnshaw one day brings home a child found in the streets of Liverpool: Heathcliff. The boy grows up in the old farmhouse of Wuthering Heights with Catherine, the daughter of the house, who never leaves his side. But Catherine turns to Edgar Linton, the rich neighbour from the valley, and Heathcliff, wounded, does not forgive. Emily Brontë wrote only this novel, and in it she tells one of the most famous loves in literature: a dark, violent love, stronger than reason. Told mostly by the servant Nelly Dean, as if by the fireside, the story is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous ageing writer worn out by work, goes to Venice to rest. In his grand hotel on the Lido, he is fascinated by a young Polish boy, Tadzio, whose beauty seems perfect to him. Meanwhile, an epidemic is secretly spreading through the city. This short novel is about the fascination of beauty, and about a very self-controlled man who little by little loses all control. It is one of the most famous stories of the twentieth century. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this masterpiece in the language you are learning.

The son of a sawmill owner in the Jura, Julien Sorel is poor, proud and ambitious, and secretly admires Napoleon. Taken on as tutor in the household of the mayor of Verrières, he seduces his wife, Madame de Rênal. Then, from the seminary in Besançon to the Paris mansion of the Marquis de La Mole, he climbs through a society that despises him. It is Stendhal's great novel of ambition and love. Julien, alone against a whole society, is one of the most fascinating heroes in literature. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this masterpiece in the language you are learning.

Young Werther settles in a quiet German village. At a ball he meets Charlotte, a radiant young woman who looks after her little brothers and sisters, but who is already promised to another man. In the letters he writes to his friend Wilhelm, Werther tells of his happiness, then of his torment. This short novel made Goethe famous overnight. All Europe was gripped by Werther, so much so that young men began to dress like him, in a blue coat and a yellow waistcoat. Written in the form of letters, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

From 1793 to 1795, the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft writes almost every day to Gilbert Imlay, the American she loves. It all begins in Paris, during the Revolution: to escape the imprisonment that threatens the English, she calls herself “Madame Imlay”. But Imlay is often away, and she writes to him from Le Havre, where their daughter Fanny is born, then from Sweden and Norway. These intimate letters show the author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” as she really was: a free woman who says frankly what she expects from love. Tender, lively and sometimes teasing, they can be read one by one, at your own pace, in the language you are learning.

In the nineteenth century, the sailing ship taking two eight-year-old cousins, Dick and Emmeline, to San Francisco catches fire in the middle of the Pacific. The children escape in a small boat with Paddy Button, an old Irish sailor, and the fog separates them from the other boats. They land on a desert island, ringed by a coral reef that shelters a blue lagoon, where Paddy fishes, cooks and looks after them. The years go by: with no school and no society to explain the world to them, the children grow up free. As teenagers, Dick and Emmeline find their feelings changing. An adventure novel about nature, innocence and the discovery of love. Its absorbing story is easy to read in the language you are learning.

During the First World War, Frederic Henry, a young American, drives ambulances for the Italian army on the mountain front. There he meets Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Wounded, he is treated in a hospital in Milan, and their affair becomes a great love. Hemingway had himself driven ambulances on that front, been wounded and loved a nurse. He tells of war without heroics, and of a love that tries to escape the war. Its short, simple sentences and plentiful dialogue make it 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.

Catherine Morland, seventeen and a clergyman's daughter, adores Gothic novels. On a visit to Bath, the town of balls and spa waters, she makes friends with the charming Isabella Thorpe and with Henry Tilney, a young clergyman full of humour. When Henry's father invites her to his old abbey of Northanger, Catherine thinks she is living one of her novels: a stormy night, papers hidden in an old cabinet, the mysterious death of Mrs Tilney. Jane Austen gently mocks the fashionable novels of her day, and everything the imagination can invent. Its humour and lively dialogue make it a delightful read in the language you are learning.

After eighteen years in the Bastille, Doctor Manette is released and reunited with his daughter Lucie, who thought he was dead. In London, Lucie meets two men who look strangely alike: Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who has given up his name, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant but disillusioned barrister. Soon the Revolution breaks out and draws them all to Paris. Its opening line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, is one of the most famous in literature, and its ending still moves readers deeply. Full of suspense and dramatic twists, the novel is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

Orphaned, mistreated by her aunt and then brought up in a harsh boarding school, Jane Eyre becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. There she meets her master, Mr Rochester, a dark and unpredictable man, and falls in love with him. But the house hides a secret, and strange noises echo through the corridors at night. A great story of love and mystery, carried by a heroine who refuses to give up her freedom and her dignity. Jane tells her own story, like a confidence, and the novel is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

In the little town of Cloisterham, in the shadow of its cathedral, young Edwin Drood is to marry Rosa Bud, a bride chosen for him since childhood. His uncle, John Jasper, the choirmaster, seems to love him dearly, but he secretly smokes opium and hides a passion for Rosa. One Christmas night, Edwin disappears. Dickens died before finishing this novel, without leaving the solution. For more than a hundred and fifty years, readers have been trying to guess what happened to Edwin. Full of suspense, this novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In Rome, under the Emperor Nero, the young patrician Vinicius falls in love with Lygia, a foreign princess brought up by a Roman family. Used to getting everything he wants, he tries to take her by force, but she escapes him, and he discovers that she is a Christian. When Rome burns and Nero looks for someone to blame, the Christians are thrown to the beasts of the arena. This great novel of love and adventure made its author famous around the world, and Sienkiewicz received the Nobel Prize in 1905. Its title comes from a famous question: “Quo vadis, Domine?”, “Where are you going, Lord?” Full of action and great scenes, the novel is a gripping read in the language you are learning.