Full catalogue

In the nineteenth-century English countryside, Lady Constantine lives alone on her estate while her husband hunts lions in Africa. She has promised him she will see almost no one, and she is bored. At the top of an old tower she finds Swithin St Cleeve, a young man of twenty who watches the sky and dreams of becoming an astronomer. She helps him with his research, and love grows between them, despite the difference in age and rank. Thomas Hardy sets this intimate story beneath the vastness of the starry sky. With the translation always in front of you, this tender novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Pip, a young orphan, is brought up by his sister and her husband Joe, a kind-hearted blacksmith, in the Kent marshes. One evening in the churchyard, he comes across an escaped convict who terrifies him. Then he is invited to the house of Miss Havisham, an old lady who still wears her wedding dress, and who lives with the beautiful, cold Estella. The day an unknown benefactor offers to make him a gentleman in London, Pip's life is turned upside down. His dreams, his mistakes and his illusions make him one of Dickens's most endearing heroes. Pip tells his own story, and this great novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In St Petersburg, Raskolnikov, a very poor former student, lives in a tiny room under the roof. He has convinced himself that certain exceptional men have the right to break the law, and he kills an old pawnbroker with an axe. From then on, fear and fever never leave him, while the cunning and patient magistrate Porfiry seems to read his thoughts. We know from the start who the murderer is, and yet the suspense never lets up: everything happens in his conscience. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this masterpiece by Dostoevsky in the language you are learning.

Eight years ago, on the advice of those close to her, Anne Elliot gave up marrying Frederick Wentworth, a young naval officer with no fortune. Now her father, ruined by his vanity, has to let the family estate. And Wentworth returns, now a captain, rich and much sought after. Anne sees him again and again, but nothing is ever said openly. Jane Austen's last completed novel tells of a second chance at love, with the subtlety and irony that made her famous. Its witty dialogue and endearing heroine make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

In Paris, Thérèse, a young society woman in a loveless marriage, is bored in her elegant drawing room. On a trip to Florence, the city whose emblem is the red lily, she falls in love with Jacques Dechartre, a sensitive and passionate artist. But Jacques is jealous, and Thérèse's past comes back to haunt him. A great story of love and jealousy under the Tuscan sun, by Anatole France, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this beautiful novel in the language you are learning.

In a quiet London suburb, twenty-one-year-old Ann Veronica Stanley is stifled by the authority of her father, who forbids her to go to a fancy-dress ball. She leaves home to live alone in London, study biology and run her own life. But money soon runs short, and a young woman's freedom has a price in those days. Wells caused a scandal with the story of this “New Woman”, who dares to claim the right to love and to choose, in the age of the suffragettes. Its lively, determined heroine makes it a gripping read in the language you are learning.

On 5 November 1900, in the middle of the Atlantic, a flying ship of metal and glass draws alongside an American liner. Its owner, Lord Redgrave, a wealthy Englishman, takes on board Zaidie Rennick, a young American who was on her way to Europe to marry a man she does not love. They marry, and set off on their honeymoon to the Moon, Mars, Venus and the great planets. There they discover strange peoples and a dead world covered in ruins. This lively and often funny tale shows how people imagined the solar system before the aeroplane was even invented. Written with gusto, this novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In Kentucky at the start of the twentieth century, an old mansion stands on Billy-goat Hill, a hill the town is slowly swallowing up. Colonel Bob Carsey lives there with his daughter, nicknamed Miss Lady, a free and joyful girl who has grown up out of doors. She falls in love with Donald Morley, a rich and unsteady young man whom the colonel distrusts. Part love story, part drama, this novel full of humour and tenderness is peopled with colourful characters from the poor part of town. Written with warmth and simplicity, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

London, May 1914. Gwenna Williams, a young, dreamy Welsh typist, goes to a flying display at Hendon and picks out, among the postcards, the portrait of an airman, Paul Dampier. Soon afterwards she meets him at a dinner, and he promises to take her flying. Before long she goes to work in an aeroplane factory. Her friend Leslie, meanwhile, always has a piece of ironic advice for her. A lively, romantic love story that brings back the excitement of the early days of flying, during the last summer before the war. Its light tone and endearing heroine make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

One winter's day, Stephen Smith, a young assistant to a London architect, arrives in a remote coastal village to survey an old church. Staying with the vicar, he falls in love with his daughter, Elfride, a young woman with blue eyes. But Stephen is hiding a secret: his father is a mason in that very village. Thomas Hardy tells of a love threatened by class differences. The novel contains a famous scene in which a man is left hanging from the edge of a cliff. It is said that this scene gave us the word “cliffhanger”. A sensitive novel to discover in the language you are learning, with the translation always in view.

Lucy Graham, a charming young governess with no fortune, marries Sir Michael Audley, a rich widower much older than herself. Shortly afterwards, George Talboys returns from Australia, where he went looking for gold, and learns that his own wife died while he was away. George disappears during a visit to Audley Court, and his friend Robert Audley, Sir Michael's nephew, wants to know what has happened to him. It was one of the greatest successes of the Victorian age: a suspense novel in which a charming woman may be hiding a terrible secret. Full of suspense, it is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

In the mid-nineteenth century, in the mountains of North Carolina, Tom De Willoughby, huge, lazy and much loved by his neighbours, runs the store and post office at a remote crossroads. One day he takes in Sheba, a baby whose young mother has just died, and brings her up on his own. Years later comes Rupert, Tom's nephew, poor and without family, hoping to win back the fortune the De Willoughbys lost in the Civil War. A warm and humorous story about the family we choose, by the author of “The Secret Garden”. With its endearing characters, this novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman, is discovering Florence with her cousin, who keeps a close eye on her. At the pension, their room does not have the view they were promised. An odd old gentleman, Mr Emerson, then offers them his room and his son George's. Back in England, Lucy becomes engaged to Cecil, a cultured and very proper man, but she does not forget Italy. Part comedy, part love story, Forster gently pokes fun at convention and asks a simple question: should we listen to what is expected of us, or to what we feel? Its humorous dialogue makes it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

In 1908, in a seaside resort in the south of England, Ruth, a former housemaid, marries Ernie Caspar, a working man. He brings up little Alice, born before their marriage, as his own daughter. Children come along, Ernie loses his job and owes the rent to his brother Alf, who still wants Ruth. As strikes spread and war draws near, a trade unionist from the North falls in love with Ruth in his turn. It is a sensitive portrait of a working-class woman, strong and loyal, in England before 1914. Its absorbing story, close to everyday life, is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In a guesthouse on the Riviera, a married woman runs off with a young man she met the day before, and the other guests are outraged. Only the narrator defends her. Soon afterwards, an elderly Englishwoman, Mrs C., confides to him a secret she has kept for more than twenty years: a day in her life that began one evening at the Monte Carlo casino, watching the hands of a young gambler. Stefan Zweig is a master of the confession and of sudden passion: little by little we understand how twenty-four hours can turn a whole life upside down. You can read this short story in one sitting in the language you are learning.

In Kentucky, young Patricia Adair has to save Rosemeade, the family home where her grandfather lives. She writes a play based on her great-grandmother's love letters. In New York, the producer Godfrey Vandeford buys it without reading it. He is even counting on the play failing, to teach the star of his shows a lesson. But Patricia arrives on Broadway full of confidence, and nothing goes as planned. A love story full of humour and high spirits, between the meadows of Kentucky and the wings of the theatre. Its lively, light tone makes it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

Around 1890, on the banks of the Kootenai River, near the border between Canada and the United States, a sixteen-year-old girl who lives among the Native Americans dives into the icy water to save a child. Dan Overton, a guide respected throughout the region, takes her to live in the village of Sinna Ferry, in Idaho. There she calls herself Montana, refuses to say where she comes from and keeps the secret map of a place rich in gold. The portrait of a free and defiant heroine, in a land of forests and gold prospectors. This novel of the American West is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In a mountain valley in Virginia in the nineteenth century, Sybil Berners, a rich heiress with a passionate nature, has just married a penniless young lawyer whom she adores. Back from their honeymoon, the couple take Rosa Blondelle, a ruined young mother abandoned by her husband, into their home at Black Hall. Little by little, the guest's charm awakens Sybil's jealousy. One evening, Rosa is found dying, and she accuses Sybil in front of everyone. A novel of passion and suspicion that keeps you in suspense right to the end. Full of dramatic twists, it can be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

Stella, nineteen and born in Italy, runs away from a boarding school in Florence and takes refuge in England with her uncle, James Etheridge, a dreamy old painter who lives on the banks of the Thames. There she meets Lord Leycester, the fiery heir to the neighbouring estate of Wyndward. Between them stand the pride of a noble family, which has another woman in mind for him, and Jasper Adelstone, a lawyer who will stop at nothing to marry Stella. A love story full of twists, carried by a frank and spontaneous heroine. Simply written, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

A young woman from New York society, suddenly ruined, marries, almost without thinking, Duncan McKail, a former engineer of Scottish descent who has become a wheat farmer in western Canada. She discovers her new life: a plank shack in the middle of the prairie, a Swedish farmhand, the hens, the cooking and the loneliness. She tells it all, day after day, in a diary addressed to her friend Matilda Anne, with a humour and frankness that make her very endearing. Written as a diary, in a lively, natural tone, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

After two years in the Burmese jungle, Edward Courtlandt, a rich American, returns to Paris to see Nora Harrigan again. She has become a famous opera singer, performing at the Opera under an Italian name. When he forces his way in, she shoots at him and misses, then disappears, and the newspapers talk of a kidnapping. What happened between them two years earlier? The novel reveals it little by little, between comedy and suspense, from Paris to Lake Como. Light and full of twists, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In London, Lionel Mortimer, a young barrister with no clients and a writer with no publisher, can no longer pay his rent. One day he stops a runaway horse and saves a young woman, Beatrice Blair. She tells him about a secret treaty coveted by several governments, and asks him to help her burgle a house to get it back. Lionel gladly agrees. Others join in, including Tony Wild, a rich idler in search of thrills. A light English comedy full of humour, in which a penniless hero becomes a burglar out of gallantry. Written with gusto, this novel will make you smile as you read it in the language you are learning.

In the eighteenth century, in an English spa town, people spend their days between the baths, the balls and the card tables. Young Phyllida is courted by Francis Vernon, a gambler buried in debt who talks of running away with her, while a young poet is also trying to win her. But Phyllida's mother does not want to see her married. A witty comedy of manners, Compton Mackenzie's first novel, full of the charm of powdered wigs and the balls of long ago. Its light tone and humour make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

In a valley in the Tyrol, two young Englishmen on their travels, Will Deverill, a poet and musician, and his friend Florian Wood, discover Linnet, a young dairymaid who sings with an exceptional voice. The village innkeeper, her singing teacher, wants to make her an opera singer and marry her. But a jealous young hunter is courting her too. From mountain pastures to the opera stage, a story of love and ambition in which a rare voice draws every eye. Told with humour, this story is easy to read in the language you are learning.