This series offers engaging, abridged retellings of globally renowned literary masterpieces. Each volume presents a classic tale from diverse cultures in a format accessible to younger readers. It serves as an excellent introduction to the richness of world literature, broadening horizons for many. These books act as a gateway to original texts, enriching language learners and casual readers alike.
The Life And Death of a Man of Character
The moving, humane tragedy of a deeply flawed and self-destructive man, The Mayor of Casterbridge is the story of Michael Henchard, who sells his wife and baby daughter at a country fair in a fit of drunken anger.
Word count 19,370 Read at a comfortable level with word count and CEFR level on every cover Illustrations, photos, and diagrams support comprehension Activities build language skills and check understanding Glossaries teach difficult vocabulary Free editable tests for every book Selected Bookworms are available for your tablet or computer through the Oxford Learner's Bookshelf
Though Aladdin's childhood had been full of beauty, comfort and happiness, without any trace of sadness or sorrow, he entirely failed to learn the lessons of hard work and responsibility.
Well's science fiction of time travel, and his protagonist's adventures in the future.
I had been given a simple but enormous task. This was the role for which I had spent my whole life preparing.
"Great Expectations" is at once a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mastery and a profound examination of moral values. Here, some of Dickens's most memorable characters come to play their part in a story whose title itself reflects the deep irony that shaped Dickens's searching reappraisal of the Victorian middle class.
In Hard Times, Dickens illustrates the condition of England through the fictional city of Coketown. Among its inhabitants are Thomas Gradgrind, the utilitarian headmaster who attempts to impose his rigid worldview on his family circle, and the uncaring businessman Mr Bounderby. Their materialist philosophies, as opposed to the world of fancy or imagination, are tested throughout the novel, which also explores workers’ conditions, trade unions and the spurious use of statistics. Perhaps the most polemical of his novels – in which hard-biting satire, moving drama and exuberant comedy find a very succinct and powerful expression – Hard Times is the ideal introduction to the world of Dickens.
Story follows the social and romantic trials of the book's heroine, Catherine Morland.
If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.
`It seems pretty clear to me that sooner or later we'll be at war with Germany, whether we like it or not.'
Dickens's classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
Can the path to the ultimate truth about human life be found by leaving behind wealth, comfort, family and security?
Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.
'The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry,' said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? And what of the other Bennet girls - their fortunes, and misfortunes, in the business of getting husbands? This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times.
Portrays the life of Gandhi, describes the development of his nonviolent political protest movement, and discusses his religious beliefs
If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.
Here is a test, a puzzle for you. It is a faithful account of two most gruesome murders. Can you work out what actually happened in the early hours of one fateful morning in the Rue Morgue?
A strange figure stood in front of him, dressed from head to foot in white clothing. The moonlight showed her pale, youthful face.
In ancient China a magical monkey appears, creating chaos everywhere he goes. The only way to put his tricks and talents to good use is to make him protector of Xuanzang, a young and handsome monk determined to travel from China to India in search of the precious scriptures.
David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; his nemesis, the eternally humble Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. In David Copperfield – the novel he described as his ‘favourite child’ – Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.
After ten long years of war and the fall of Troy, the Greek hero Odysseus sets sail for his homeland. His voyage, however, is destined to take much longer than he expects.
Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery. This book also includes another Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Speckled Band.
Although Song Jiang is only a lowly local government official, he is loyal to the emperor and kind to all the citizens in his care. But Song is in trouble. A series of unfortunate incidents have led to him being arrested, and his political enemies are keen to see him sentenced to death.
The arrival of a gold bug leads the three men on an exciting adventure towards skeletons, a skull and a hunt for buried treasure.
The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. The intense darkness oppressed and stifled me so that I struggled for breath.
My darkness lifted, never to return. This man was truly the light of the world.
Makes a portrait of India. In this book, these unabridged observations of the British in India and Indian life were originally commissioned for The Civil and Military Gazette where the author worked as a journalist in the 1880s.
Catching fish. That's what I was doing on the day that changed my life for ever.
Beautiful, rich, self-assured, and witty, Emma Woodhouse delights in match-making those around her with no apparent care for her own romantic life.
Although the shortest of George Eliot's novels, Silas Marner is one of her most admired and loved works. It tells the sad story of the unjustly exiled Silas Marner - a handloom linen weaver of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England - and how he is restored to life by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie. Silas Marner is a tender and moving tale of sin and repentance set in a vanished rural world and holds the reader's attention until the last page as Eppie's bonds of affection for Silas are put to the test.
zjednodušená anglická četba, vhodná při přípravě na zkoušku FCE jako doplňkový materiál ( úroveň B2 - Upper-Intermediate, slovní zásoba 2 200 slov)věk 16+
`Send the brat home? Oh no we won't! Her mother must have met some rich man - we can make a load of money out of this.'
Rachel opened the box and lifted out the diamond. She held it up in a ray of sunlight that poured through the window, and cried out in amazement.
If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.
A storm, a shipwreck, an enchanted island ...