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In India, two babies are mixed up: the son of a captain and the son of a sergeant. Unable to tell which one is his, Captain Clinton brings up both boys as twins, Rupert and Edgar. When Edgar is sixteen, a stranger tells him that she is his real mother, and he runs away to join the army under a false name. With him, we travel up the Nile alongside the expedition sent to relieve General Gordon, besieged in Khartoum in 1884. A story of war and brotherly friendship that closely follows a very real campaign. Full of action, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In the middle of the First World War, Richard Hannay, the hero of “The Thirty-Nine Steps”, has to unmask a formidable German spy hidden in England. Under a false identity, he settles among pacifists. Then the trail leads him from Scotland to the Swiss mountains, and on to the front in France. Chases, disguises and coded messages: Hannay can count only on his nerve and a few loyal friends. The title comes from a character in “The Pilgrim's Progress”, the old book that accompanies Hannay throughout his mission. Its fast pace makes it easy to read in the language you are learning.

Rejected by his family and penniless, young Roderick Random leaves his native Scotland to seek his fortune in London, with his faithful friend Strap, a barber. Robbed, deceived and press-ganged into the navy, he becomes a surgeon's mate on a warship and lives through the Battle of Cartagena. Smollett had himself served as a naval surgeon, and his scenes on board are strikingly true to life. Full of hard knocks and satire, this adventure novel delighted Charles Dickens as a child. With the translation always in front of you, its humorous adventures are a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In the near future, huge airliners link Plymouth and New York in thirty hours. Sir John Custance, head of the British air police, has just become engaged to Connie Shepherd, an actress all London adores. But pirates with silent engines are plundering planes over the Atlantic, and they kidnap Connie. Unrecognisable in disguise, Sir John follows their trail all the way to Cornwall. Written in 1919, this adventure novel already imagined a sky full of airliners. Told by Sir John himself, at a fast pace, the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In London at the start of the twentieth century, Helen Wynton, a poor young secretary, dreams of seeing the eternal snows of the Alps. A rich American, Charles Spencer, overhears her wish. Without giving his name, he pays a small newspaper, which sends Helen to write articles at a grand hotel in Maloja, in Switzerland. But Mark Bower, a man far too interested in her, takes the same train. Among glaciers and mountain guides, Spencer watches over Helen, while an old guide, Stampa, hides an old grief connected with Bower. A story of love and suspense in the heart of the Alps. With plenty of dialogue, the novel is easy 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.

One June morning, a young man who calls himself Walker Farr is walking the roads of New England. He looks like a tramp, but he speaks like an educated man and hides his past. He stops at Marion, a cotton-mill town. Typhoid is striking its poor families, because of the water sold by Colonel Dodd's company. Dodd also controls the state's politicians. Asking nothing for himself, Farr joins the fight against him, and meets Kate Kilgour, Dodd's secretary. A lively novel about the courage of one man against a political machine. Absorbing from start to finish, this story is easy to read in the language you are learning.

John Algernon Owens tells the life of Willard Glazier, born into a modest family in New York State: his childhood on the farm, his years as a schoolteacher, then the Civil War in the Union cavalry, his capture, prison and escape. Now a successful writer, Glazier rides across the United States on horseback, then canoes down the Mississippi, whose true source he claims to have found, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. A life of adventure, told while its hero was still alive, from letters and articles of the time. Told like an adventure novel, this biography is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

Peter Moore, a wireless operator on Pacific liners, has the sharpest ear in the trade. In San Francisco's Chinatown, a woman throws him a note from a window ordering him to keep away. Soon he picks up a call for help in Morse code, and a young American woman is kidnapped. The adventure takes him all the way to a river near Shanghai, towards the domain of the “Grey Dragon”, a powerful mine owner. A fast-moving mystery in early twentieth-century China, with a hero who has more daring than caution. Its fast pace and direct sentences make it easy to 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.

With humour, the Scottish historian John Hill Burton paints a portrait of book hunters: the collector who ends up buying a second copy of a book he already owns, the browser who rummages through second-hand bookshops, the regular at auctions, the reader who reads a bit of everything. He also tells of the birth of the great libraries and of book collectors' clubs, such as the Roxburghe Club. A learned and good-humoured book for everyone who loves books and old editions. This edition opens with the author's biography, written by his widow. Its chapters can be read one by one, at your own pace, in the language you are learning.

The son of a woman who followed the armies and robbed the dead on battlefields, Ferdinand is taken in by a generous nobleman, Count de Melvil, and brought up with his son Renaldo. But the boy dreams only of rising by cunning. He betrays his benefactors, then travels across Europe cheating at cards and seducing women, until he passes himself off as a count in London. The hero of this novel by Tobias Smollett is a true rogue, and we watch for each new trick with pleasure mixed with dread. With the translation always in front of you, you can discover this great adventure novel in the language you are learning.

On Christmas Eve, little Marie finds a wooden nutcracker among the presents. When her brother Fritz breaks three of the poor toy's teeth, she takes it under her protection. Left alone in the drawing room, she sees the toys come to life and do battle with an army of mice, led by a seven-headed king. We also hear the story of Princess Pirlipat, in a fantasy stranger than you might think, where you never quite know whether Marie is dreaming. With the translation always in front of you, this short tale can be read in one sitting 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 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.

On the coast of Maine, young Captain Boyd Mayo commands the yacht of Julius Marston, a rich Wall Street financier, and falls for his daughter, Alma. Humiliated by Marston in front of his guests, he decides to leave. That same night, in the fog, a very old sailing ship loaded with timber catches him as it passes and carries him off to sea against his will. After a storm, he helps fishing families driven from their island, and takes on Marston, who wants to seize the steamship lines along the coast. A humorous novel of adventure and love, set to the rhythm of old sea shanties. Its lively dialogue and absorbing story make it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

In 1854, Harry Hardinge, a young officer in the Welsh Fusiliers, is waiting to leave for the war against Russia. On a large estate in Wales, he is reunited with Lady Estelle, whom he loves in silence, and a troubling rival. Then his regiment leaves for the Crimea, and Harry experiences the Battle of Inkerman and the trenches before Sevastopol. A novel of war and love, which stays close to the soldiers marching under the flag of the red dragon. Harry tells his own story, and this action-packed novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

At the end of 1853, Newton Norcliff, a young lieutenant in a British lancer regiment, learns that his regiment will leave in the spring for the war in the East. He spends his last leave in Scotland, with Lady Louisa, whom he loves, and who is also courted by Berkeley, a cold and cunning officer. Newton and Louisa become secretly engaged, then Newton sets sail for the Crimea. Written by a former officer, this novel takes us from garrison life to the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, the charge of the “six hundred” that Tennyson made famous in a poem. Newton tells his own story, and the novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.

Born in Brooklyn, Austin Bidwell starts work young in a Wall Street office, where he acquires a taste for gambling and easy money. In 1873, with his brother George and two accomplices, he pulls off a coup of incredible daring: getting the Bank of England to accept forged bills of exchange. Then come the escape, through Ireland, Spain and Cuba, the trial and prison. These are the memoirs of a real swindler, who gives an insider's view of the finance, police and prisons of the nineteenth century. Told in the first person, like an adventure story, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

Eighteen-year-old Barrie MacDonald grows up near Carlisle with a stern grandmother who hates the theatre and has let her believe that her mother is dead. The day Barrie learns that her mother, an actress, is very much alive, she runs away to find her. On the way she meets a rich Scotsman back from America, who takes her on a motoring tour of Scotland. A fresh romantic comedy, with the roads and landscapes of Scotland as its backdrop. Told partly by Barrie herself, the story is easy to read in the language you are learning.

In the 1260s, England is torn apart between King Henry III and the barons led by Simon de Montfort. Hugh de Monthermer, a young knight, loves Lucy de Ashby, the daughter of a house once hostile to his own. Meanwhile, in Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and his outlaws take the side of the barons. From village fairs to the Battle of Evesham, this novel of adventure and love brings a medieval civil war back to life, with the most famous of all outlaws at the heart of the action. Full of twists, it is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In Chicago at the start of the twentieth century, Rose Stanton, a lively, independent student who means to study law, marries Rodney Aldrich, a wealthy lawyer she met by chance, within a few weeks. Settled in a fine house, surrounded by servants and then the mother of twins, she realises that she is expected to be a decorative wife, with no role and no real work. Rose wants a life of her own, and she fights for it, even trying to earn her own living in the world of the theatre. Published in 1916, this novel speaks about marriage and women's place with astonishing frankness. Its absorbing story and lively dialogue are a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.