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In his rooms at 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes receives visitors with strange stories: a league open only to red-headed men, a precious stone hidden in a goose, a mysterious speckled band… With his friend Dr Watson, who tells of their cases, he solves every puzzle thanks to extraordinary powers of observation. Twelve short cases, each of which can be read in one sitting, in which the smallest detail becomes a clue. The lively dialogue and clear sentences make them an ideal read in the language you are learning.

An American family buys an old English castle, haunted for three centuries by the ghost of Sir Simon. But the newcomers are afraid of nothing: they scrub away the bloodstain he makes reappear every night, and offer him oil for his noisy chains. A ghost story turned upside down, in which it is the ghost who ends up terrified, full of humour and, little by little, of tenderness. You can read this short story by Oscar Wilde in one sitting in the language you are learning.

On the banks of the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer, a mischievous boy brought up by his Aunt Polly, prefers adventure to school. As a punishment, he has to whitewash a long fence, and he manages to get his friends to hand over their treasures for the right to paint it for him. One night, with his friend Huckleberry Finn, he secretly witnesses a murder in the graveyard. Running away to an island, a treasure hunt, a cave where you get lost: this is the great novel of a free childhood, funny and a little frightening, and you never forget it. Full of humour and lively dialogue, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In London, a painter makes a portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man of extraordinary beauty. In front of the picture, Dorian makes a wish: to stay young for ever, and for the portrait to grow old in his place. Under the influence of the cynical Lord Henry, he throws himself into a life of pleasure, and each of his sins leaves a mark on the canvas. Dorian then hides the picture from everyone. A fascinating story about beauty, evil and the price of eternal youth, sparkling with Oscar Wilde's wit. Its witty dialogue makes it a captivating read in the language you are learning.

In these texts gathered for the schoolchildren of the Philippines, José Rizal tells his own life: his childhood in Calamba, on the shore of a large lake, his mother teaching him to read in the evenings, the strict school in Biñan, then his success at college in Manila. Other pages tell of his travels, from Japan to England, and of his exile in Dapitan. We get to know the national hero of the Philippines from the inside, with proverbs, riddles and a legend from his country as well. Written in simple sentences, this little book is easy to read in the language you are learning.

To escape their obligations, two young men from London society lie with great aplomb. Jack invents a brother called Ernest, and goes by that name whenever he goes off to enjoy himself in town. Algernon invents a sick friend to escape boring dinners. Things get complicated when two young women declare that they will only marry a man named Ernest. It is Oscar Wilde's funniest comedy, in which every line sparkles with wit. Written in short, lively dialogue, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

Marlow, an English sailor, agrees to take a steamboat up a great river in Africa, for a company that trades in ivory. All the way upriver, he hears about Kurtz, the company's most brilliant agent. Kurtz, who has settled in the depths of the forest, sends back more ivory on his own than all the others put together. But no one really knows what has become of him out there. This short tale takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the heart of colonisation, where power no longer has any limits. With the translation always in front of you, you can discover this story in the language you are learning.

Just back from the war, Dr Watson is looking for lodgings in London and shares rooms with a strange companion: Sherlock Holmes. Soon a man is found dead in an empty house, without a single wound, and a word is written in letters of blood on the wall. It is Sherlock Holmes's very first case, the one in which the most famous pair of detectives is born. This short novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

Frederick Douglass is born a slave on a plantation in Maryland, separated from his mother at birth. As a child he secretly learns to read, although it is forbidden, and understands that knowledge is the path to freedom. He tells of the beatings, the hunger, the resistance, and his escape to the North. A deeply moving account, written by a man who became one of the great voices against slavery. Its simple, powerful sentences make it easy to read in the language you are learning.

As a young boy, Larry Livingston starts out in a brokerage house, chalking up stock prices on a board. He becomes one of the greatest speculators on Wall Street, and tells of his strokes of genius, his bankruptcies, and everything his mistakes taught him about the markets and about himself. A cult book among traders and investors, still read for its lessons on risk, patience and keeping your emotions in check. Told in the first person, like a long conversation, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In Providence, in the United States, an old abandoned house has a sinister reputation: for more than a century, the people who have lived there have fallen ill and died one after another. The narrator and his uncle, an old doctor, search the town's archives. Then they decide to spend the night in the cellar, where a strange mould traces a human shape on the floor. Lovecraft set this short tale in a real street of his home town, and the fear grows little by little, from what you sense more than from what you see. You can read it in one sitting in the language you are learning.

White Fang, a young wolf with a trace of dog in his blood, is born in the frozen wastes of the Far North, where he learns the law of survival very early. Taken in by humans, he discovers their world, often hard and violent, and becomes a feared fighter. Until the day he meets a man who offers him something other than blows. A great adventure about loyalty and trust, in which a wild animal slowly learns to love. Jack London's direct, vivid style makes it an ideal classic 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.

An old legend says that a monstrous hound haunts the Baskerville family on the Devon moor. One evening, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead, his face frozen in terror. Near him are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are called in to protect his heir. It is Sherlock Holmes's most famous case, amid fog, bogs and fear of the supernatural. Full of suspense, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

After her parents die in India, Mary, a lonely and spoilt little girl, is sent to live with an uncle in a large, isolated manor house in Yorkshire. There she hears of a garden that has been locked for ten years, and at last she finds its door, hidden under the ivy. At night, crying echoes through the corridors of the house. A radiant story, in which a garden coming back to life in spring helps children heal from loneliness. Tender and absorbing, the story is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In a small village in the Hudson Valley, people say that a headless horseman gallops along the roads at night. Ichabod Crane, a thin and very superstitious schoolmaster, courts the daughter of a rich local farmer, under the eye of a rival far brawnier than he is. Both funny and eerie, this short tale is one of America's most famous ghost stories, perfect for an autumn evening. You can read it in one sitting in the language you are learning.

After the Trojan War, Odysseus wants to return home to his island of Ithaca. But it will take him ten years of wandering: he faces the Cyclops, escapes the song of the Sirens and resists the charms of the enchantress Circe. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope fends off the suitors who have overrun her palace. It is the greatest adventure in literature, so much so that its title has become a word: an odyssey. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great tale 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 Athens, the poet Agathon is celebrating his victory in the tragedy contest. His guests, Socrates among them, decide to spend the evening taking turns to praise Love. The comic poet Aristophanes tells how humans were once double, and how, cut in two by Zeus, they have been looking for their other half ever since. The expression “Platonic love” comes from this dialogue. Its questions still speak to everyone: why do we love, and what are we really looking for in another person? Written like a conversation between friends, with the translation always in front of you, this short dialogue reads easily in the language you are learning.

In 1848, on the eve of the revolutions, Marx and Engels publish this short text, which opens with a famous line: “A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of communism.” They describe history as a struggle between classes, trace the rise of the bourgeoisie and call on workers to unite. Whether or not you share its ideas, few texts have changed the world so much. Its last line, “Workers of the world, unite!”, is known everywhere, and reading it helps you understand a large part of the twentieth century. Written as a call to action, and with the translation always in front of you, it can be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

After ten years alone in the mountains, the sage Zarathustra comes down among men to bring them news: “God is dead”. He urges them to stop following the values they have been taught, and to create their own. This book brought the idea of the Übermensch into our culture. Many readers still find in it a powerful call to become fully themselves. With the translation always in front of you, you can read these speeches, short and rhythmic like poems, in the language you are learning.

A young woman, worn out after the birth of her baby, is taken by her husband, a doctor, to an old house rented for the summer. She is forbidden to write or work, and she spends her days in a room covered in hideous yellow wallpaper. She keeps a secret diary, and comes to believe that a figure is moving behind the pattern on the wall. Charlotte Perkins Gilman had been through such a rest cure herself, and this short story creates an unease that grows with every page. You can read it in one sitting in the language you are learning.

This collection brings together five English stories from the time of Queen Victoria, all about love and marriage. In Venice, a paralysed painter only sees the young woman next door through her reflection in the water of the canal. In a Devon village, Patience, the vicar's daughter, who always says what she thinks, sees a rich captain arrive from London. The other stories follow a sheep farmer, a very shy fisherman and a young poet, each in love with a woman. Five authors, including Anthony Trollope, look at love with tenderness or irony. Short stories, each of which you can read in one sitting in the language you are learning.