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In the America of the Roaring Twenties, the mysterious Jay Gatsby throws huge parties every weekend at his mansion by the water. His young neighbour gradually discovers what lies behind all this luxury: a youthful love that Gatsby has never forgotten. Beyond the love story, this short novel by Fitzgerald paints a critical portrait of a society fascinated by money and appearances. Fitzgerald writes with elegance and clarity, and his novel is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In the English countryside, Mrs Bennet has only one idea: to marry off her five daughters. The arrival of Mr Bingley, a rich young man, in the neighbourhood delights her, but his friend Mr Darcy is cold and proud from the very first ball. Elizabeth, the second of the sisters, lively and teasing, takes an instant dislike to him. Its witty exchanges and amused eye on families and marriages make it one of the best loved comedies in literature. With the translation always in front of you, Jane Austen's elegant, ironic style is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

On Prince Edward Island, a brother and sister were expecting a boy from the orphanage to help them on the farm. Instead, a little red-haired girl arrives: Anne, talkative, dreamy and full of imagination. She shakes up the quiet life of Green Gables, and slowly wins everyone's heart. A radiant novel full of humour about childhood, friendship and the need to be loved, which has enchanted generations of readers. Its lively dialogue makes it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

In 1625, young d'Artagnan leaves his native Gascony for Paris, with a ridiculous horse and a letter for the captain of the King's Musketeers. On his very first day he challenges three musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, to duels, and they become his friends for life. Together they defend the queen against Cardinal Richelieu and the formidable Milady. Duels, wild rides and plots: the great swashbuckling novel, and one of the finest stories of friendship in literature. Full of humour, action and lively dialogue, it is easy to 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 an English village, Emma Woodhouse, young, beautiful, rich and sure of herself, amuses herself by arranging other people's marriages. She takes under her wing Harriet, a young woman with no fortune, and decides to find her a husband in her own way. But Emma reads hearts badly, starting with her own. A comedy full of misunderstandings, in which Jane Austen gently mocks her heroine, and we laugh at her mistakes before recognising ourselves in them. Its witty dialogue is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

In Paris, a ghost haunts the Opera: he demands that Box Five be kept for him and threatens the managers by letter. Christine Daaé, a young Swedish singer, secretly takes lessons from a mysterious voice she calls the Angel of Music. Her childhood friend, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, wants to find out who is behind this voice. A chandelier that falls in the middle of a performance, a mask, tunnels under the stage: Gaston Leroux created a character famous all over the world, both frightening and touching. Told like an investigation and full of suspense, the novel is easy to read 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.

The son of a sawmill owner in the Jura, Julien Sorel is poor, proud and ambitious, and secretly admires Napoleon. Taken on as tutor in the household of the mayor of Verrières, he seduces his wife, Madame de Rênal. Then, from the seminary in Besançon to the Paris mansion of the Marquis de La Mole, he climbs through a society that despises him. It is Stendhal's great novel of ambition and love. Julien, alone against a whole society, is one of the most fascinating heroes in literature. With the translation always in front of you, you can read this masterpiece 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.

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.

In the nineteenth century, the sailing ship taking two eight-year-old cousins, Dick and Emmeline, to San Francisco catches fire in the middle of the Pacific. The children escape in a small boat with Paddy Button, an old Irish sailor, and the fog separates them from the other boats. They land on a desert island, ringed by a coral reef that shelters a blue lagoon, where Paddy fishes, cooks and looks after them. The years go by: with no school and no society to explain the world to them, the children grow up free. As teenagers, Dick and Emmeline find their feelings changing. An adventure novel about nature, innocence and the discovery of love. Its absorbing story is easy to read in the language you are learning.

During the First World War, Frederic Henry, a young American, drives ambulances for the Italian army on the mountain front. There he meets Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Wounded, he is treated in a hospital in Milan, and their affair becomes a great love. Hemingway had himself driven ambulances on that front, been wounded and loved a nurse. He tells of war without heroics, and of a love that tries to escape the war. Its short, simple sentences and plentiful dialogue make it easy to read 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.

Catherine Morland, seventeen and a clergyman's daughter, adores Gothic novels. On a visit to Bath, the town of balls and spa waters, she makes friends with the charming Isabella Thorpe and with Henry Tilney, a young clergyman full of humour. When Henry's father invites her to his old abbey of Northanger, Catherine thinks she is living one of her novels: a stormy night, papers hidden in an old cabinet, the mysterious death of Mrs Tilney. Jane Austen gently mocks the fashionable novels of her day, and everything the imagination can invent. Its humour and lively dialogue make it a delightful read in the language you are learning.

After eighteen years in the Bastille, Doctor Manette is released and reunited with his daughter Lucie, who thought he was dead. In London, Lucie meets two men who look strangely alike: Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who has given up his name, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant but disillusioned barrister. Soon the Revolution breaks out and draws them all to Paris. Its opening line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, is one of the most famous in literature, and its ending still moves readers deeply. Full of suspense and dramatic twists, the novel is a gripping 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.

In Rome, under the Emperor Nero, the young patrician Vinicius falls in love with Lygia, a foreign princess brought up by a Roman family. Used to getting everything he wants, he tries to take her by force, but she escapes him, and he discovers that she is a Christian. When Rome burns and Nero looks for someone to blame, the Christians are thrown to the beasts of the arena. This great novel of love and adventure made its author famous around the world, and Sienkiewicz received the Nobel Prize in 1905. Its title comes from a famous question: “Quo vadis, Domine?”, “Where are you going, Lord?” Full of action and great scenes, the novel is a gripping read 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.

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.

Perdican, who has just taken his doctorate, returns to the family castle, where his father wants him to marry his cousin Camille, who has only just left the convent. Camille rejects him. To sting her, Perdican pretends to court Rosette, a young peasant girl, and the game of pride between the two cousins grows more and more dangerous. Between laughter and tears, this play by Musset holds one of the finest speeches about love, and its title has become a saying in French: you do not trifle with love. Written in short, lively dialogue, it can be read in one sitting in the language you are learning.

Silvia is to marry Dorante, whom she has never seen. To observe him without being recognised, she takes the place of her maid Lisette. But Dorante has had exactly the same idea, and arrives disguised as a manservant. Each then falls in love with someone they believe to be a servant, and no longer knows what to do with their heart. It is Marivaux's most famous comedy, a very subtle game of masks and feelings. Its author even gave a word to the French language: marivaudage. Written in short, lively dialogue, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.

When their father dies, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood lose the family home and go to live with their mother in a cottage in Devon. Elinor, the elder, keeps her feelings to herself; Marianne, passionate, says everything she feels. Marianne falls in love with the charming Willoughby, who came to her rescue one rainy day, and hides nothing of her happiness. Elinor, for her part, silently loves the reserved Edward. With her light irony, Jane Austen shows two ways of loving, and right to the end we wonder which of the two sisters is right. Its witty dialogue makes it an enjoyable read in the language you are learning.

Orphaned, Denise arrives in Paris from Normandy with her two young brothers. Her uncle, a small draper, is being ruined by the department store across the road, The Ladies' Paradise. Denise starts work there as a shop assistant, mocked by the other employees, and little by little catches the eye of the owner, the ambitious Octave Mouret. Huge departments, dazzling shop windows, customers spending freely: Zola tells of the birth of the department store, and the story of an upright young woman whom money cannot buy. With the translation always in front of you, this absorbing story is easy to read in the language you are learning.