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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 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 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.

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.

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.

Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor, travels to Transylvania to complete the sale of a property near London to Count Dracula. In the isolated castle, he notices that his host never eats, never appears by day and has no reflection in the mirror. Soon Jonathan realises that he is a prisoner. This is the novel that created the most famous of all vampires, and fixed his image for ever: the castle, the night, the fangs and the fear that lurks. Told through diaries and letters, it reads like a thriller in the language you are learning.

In Paris at the end of the nineteenth century, Georges Duroy, a penniless former soldier, runs into an old comrade who has become a journalist and gets him a job on his newspaper. Handsome, with neither talent nor scruples, Duroy soon realises that women can open every door for him. Maupassant paints the portrait of a seducer who will stop at nothing to succeed, and shows plainly what goes on behind the scenes of the press, politics and money. With its lively chapters and clear style, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

Laura lives alone with her father in a lonely castle in Styria, far from any neighbours. One evening, a carriage accident leaves a young stranger under their roof: Carmilla, beautiful, languid and full of tenderness for Laura. Soon young women start dying in the surrounding villages, and Laura herself grows weaker, troubled by strange dreams. Carmilla gets up late and refuses to say where she comes from: that is her whole mystery. This short novel, published a quarter of a century before “Dracula”, long shaped the figure of the female vampire. Told by Laura, like a confidence, it can be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

In Vienna, a famous writer comes home on his birthday and finds a long letter, with no name or address. A woman tells him her life story: she has loved him since she was thirteen, since the day he moved into the flat opposite hers. Over the years he has met her many times, without ever recognising her. Who is this unknown woman, and why is she writing to him now? This short story by Stefan Zweig is one of the most beautiful tales of unrequited love. Written like a confession, in a single voice, it can be read in one sitting 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 St Petersburg, Hermann, a young officer, watches his fellow officers play cards every night without ever placing a bet himself. He learns that an old countess is said to know the secret of three cards that always win. To get close to her, he courts Lizaveta, the poor young woman who lives with the countess, and one night he slips into the house. This short story by Pushkin builds the tension right to the end, and leaves a doubt hanging: chance, madness or the supernatural? You can read it in one sitting 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.

One night, on board a liner returning from Asia, a passenger who never sleeps approaches the narrator and tells him his secret. A doctor at a remote post in the Dutch East Indies, he was visited by a European woman, beautiful and proud, who came to ask him for a forbidden operation. He refused, out of pride as much as desire, then set off after this woman like a man seized by madness. That is where the title comes from: amok, the frenzy that, in Malaya, drives a man to run straight ahead. You can read this short story by Stefan Zweig in one sitting 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 the Caucasus in the 1830s, an old captain tells a traveller the story of Pechorin, a young Russian officer who is brilliant, jaded and dangerous to those who love him. Then the traveller gets hold of his journal. In it we read how Pechorin seduces a princess out of sheer boredom, and how he fights a duel coldly, almost out of curiosity. Lermontov, who himself died in a duel at twenty-six, made Pechorin one of the most fascinating characters in Russian literature: a hero who is no hero. Made up of five short stories, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.