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One morning, Gregor Samsa, a humble travelling salesman, wakes up transformed into an enormous insect. Shut in his room, he can no longer work, and his family, who depended on his wages, have to learn to live with him. This short story, unsettling and shot through with dark humour, shows what is left of a man when his family sees him only as a burden. Kafka writes in simple, precise sentences: an ideal text for a first read in the language you are learning.

Epictetus, a former slave who became a philosopher, starts from a simple distinction. There are things that are up to us: our judgements, our desires and our choices. And there are things that are not: the body, money, other people's opinions. In short maxims, he teaches how to stop worrying about what is beyond our control, and to act on what is within our power. His advice helps us stay calm in the face of difficulties and feel less at the mercy of events. Many readers keep it close at hand all their lives. Its brief, clear sentences can be read one by one, at your own pace, in the language you are learning.

In London, the lawyer Mr Utterson is worried about his old friend Dr Jekyll, a respected physician. In his will, Jekyll leaves everything he owns to a certain Mr Hyde, a brutal man whom everyone fears. Utterson investigates to understand what binds these two men. This short novel is about the dark side everyone carries within, and leads to one of the most famous revelations in literature. Its fast pace makes it an ideal classic to read in the language you are learning.

Attributed to the Chinese sage Lao Tzu, this little book gathers eighty-one short poems about the Tao, the way that guides all things. It praises water, which overcomes stone through its softness, and emptiness, which makes a vessel useful. For more than two thousand years, its readers have learnt from it how to act without forcing, to stay simple and to find calm. Its very short texts can be read one by one, at your own pace, in the language you are learning.

In the midst of wars and the cares of power, Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, wrote notes for himself alone, to stay calm and just. In them he reminds himself of what really matters: doing your duty, accepting what you cannot change, and not letting others disturb you. These thoughts help us step back from everyday difficulties, and keep calm when everything around us is in turmoil. Short and clear, they can be read one by one, at your own pace, 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.

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.

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.

During the American Civil War, Henry Fleming, a young farmer, joins the Union army dreaming of glory. For weeks he waits for his first battle and wonders whether he will stand firm or run away. When the battle finally comes, the smoke, the noise and the fear sweep away all his ideas about heroism. Stephen Crane, born after the war, had never seen it, and yet many readers took him for an old soldier. This short novel tells the battle from the inside, as close as possible to what a frightened man feels. Its clear sentences and vivid scenes make it enjoyable to read in the language you are learning.

Fyodor Karamazov, a miserly and dissolute father, quarrels with his eldest son Dmitri over money and over the same woman. His two other sons take opposite paths: Ivan, tormented by the existence of evil, and gentle Alyosha, a novice in a monastery. One evening, the old man is murdered, and all suspicion falls on Dmitri. Both a murder investigation and a great family novel, it is Dostoevsky's last book, and for many readers his greatest. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this masterpiece in the language you are learning.

Descartes tells how, disappointed by everything he learnt at school, he decided to start again from scratch. He sets himself four simple rules for thinking well, and doubts everything, until he finds the one thing he cannot doubt: “I think, therefore I am”. A little book that changed the way we reason. Even today, it helps us think for ourselves, with method and a critical mind. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this founding text in the language you are learning.

One morning, Josef K., a senior bank official, is arrested at home without knowing why. Yet he is left free to go to work. The court trying him sits in suburban attics cluttered with files, and no one can tell him what he is accused of. Kafka had asked his friend Max Brod to burn this novel after his death, along with his other manuscripts. Max Brod refused. The word “Kafkaesque”, for any absurd situation where you get lost in rules and offices, comes largely from this book. With its strange, sometimes almost comic scenes, and the translation always in front of you, the novel reads well in the language you are learning.

In Ireland, young Stephen Dedalus grows up in a Catholic family that is slowly growing poorer. A pupil of the Jesuits, terrified for a time by a sermon on hell, he is even invited to become a priest. But he feels another calling growing inside him: the call of art. Joyce tells, barely disguised, the story of his own youth: how a sensitive boy becomes a writer who wants to think for himself. His hero bears the name of Daedalus, the figure from Greek mythology who made himself wings to escape. With the translation always in front of you, you can discover this great novel by Joyce in the language you are learning.

In London, one rainy February, two women who do not know each other read the same small advertisement: a little medieval castle is to let for the month of April, in Italy, by the sea, among the wisteria and the sunshine. To share the cost, they join forces with two strangers, a young aristocrat and an old lady. Far from London and their habits, each of them slowly changes in the Italian light. A radiant novel full of humour, which makes you want to travel. Written in a light, lively style, it is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Ivan Ilyich is a respected judge who has built himself a comfortable, honourable and well-ordered life. One day, after an ordinary fall, a strange pain appears in his side, and never leaves him. Little by little he realises that his illness is serious, and that his family would rather pretend to see nothing. Facing death, he wonders whether he has really lived. This short story by Tolstoy has lost none of its force: it asks the question everyone ends up asking, about what really matters. Written in a simple, direct style, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

“I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man.” So begins the confession of a former minor civil servant, bitter and solitary, shut away in a corner of St Petersburg. First he explains, provocatively, why he rejects reason and progress. Then he tells of a humiliating evening with old schoolfellows, and of his meeting with a young woman, Liza. This narrator mocks everything, himself as much as the reader, and yet he fascinates. This book is often seen as the way into Dostoevsky's great novels. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this feverish text in the language you are learning.

A young governess goes to look after two children, Miles and Flora, in an isolated manor house in the English countryside. The children are charming, almost too charming. Soon she glimpses, on a tower and then near a pond, two figures who should not be there. Real ghosts, or the governess's madness? Henry James leaves the question open to the very last line, and it is this doubt that makes the tale one of the most famous ghost stories. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this classic 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.

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.

On Wall Street, a lawyer takes on a new copyist, Bartleby, a pale, quiet young man who is very diligent at first. One day, when his employer asks him to check a copy with him, Bartleby simply replies: “I would prefer not to.” Then he gives the same answer to every request, without ever leaving the office. Funny and unsettling at once, this short story asks a question you do not forget: what do you do with someone who refuses everything, politely and without anger? His phrase, “I would prefer not to”, has become famous all over the world. You can read the story in one sitting in the language you are learning.

On a fine June morning in London, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing the party she is giving that evening. As the day goes by, marked by the chimes of Big Ben, she thinks back to her youth and to Peter Walsh, the man she did not marry. Elsewhere in the city, Septimus, a former soldier, still carries the war inside him. The whole novel takes place in a single day, and we move from one character to another as if we could hear them think. Its first line, in which Mrs Dalloway says she will buy the flowers herself, has become famous. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great classic in the language you are learning.

Seneca, philosopher and adviser to the Emperor Nero, writes to those close to him to help them live better. The first of these six dialogues argues that life is not short, but that we waste it, busy with everything except living. The others speak of peace of mind, of the happy life and of the wise man's calm in the face of insults. His advice on the use of time and self-control still speaks to today's reader, and many of his sentences are made to be remembered. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great classic in the language you are learning.

Born in a workhouse, Oliver Twist grows up hungry, and one day dares to ask for a little more gruel, which causes an outrage. He runs away to London, where he falls into the hands of Fagin, an old man who trains a gang of children to pick people's pockets. Dickens shows the misery of London's poor children, and his characters, like the cunning Fagin, have remained famous. A moving story about innocence in the face of a merciless world. With chapters full of twists, this novel is a gripping read in the language you are learning.

This little collection brings together Zhu Ziqing's most famous prose pieces. In “The Sight of Father's Back”, a clumsy father crosses the tracks at a station to buy oranges for his son. Elsewhere, the author walks at night around a lotus pond under the moon, or glides in a boat along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. Studied in every school in China, these texts have made this father seen from behind one of the most moving memories in Chinese literature. Short, tender and very musical, they can be read one by one, at your own pace, in the language you are learning.