The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris, when they become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the finding of the first murder victim in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentagram drawn on his chest in his own blood.

When their father’s business fails, the six Bastable children decide to restore the family fortunes. But although they think of many ingenious ways to do so, their well meant efforts are either more fun than profitable, or lead to trouble…

Contemporary / British English Everybody tells Forrest Gump that he’s an idiot. But he’s a great football player, and he plays the harmonica beautifully. He’s also a brave soldier. But can he ever marry the girl he loves? This story of his journey through life is sometimes sad and sometimes very funny.

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house. There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens — and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says — just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future — and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

The human mind is a dark, bottomless pit, and sometimes it works in strange and frightening ways. That sound in the night… is it a door banging in the wind, or a murdered man knocking inside his coffin? The face in the mirror… is it yours, or the face of someone standing behind you, who is never there when you turn round? These famous short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, that master of horror, explore the dark world of the imagination, where the dead live and speak, where fear lies in every shadow of the mind…

Seven intriguing stories by one of the most famous and gifted writers of 19th-century American literature.

The Macmillan Readers series is one of the most popular and respected series of readers for those learning English. They are simplified «retellings» of an original work, created by highly experienced ELT writers.

Britain is not an easy country to understand. To visitors, British life is sometimes very strange. What is life like for ordinary people in Britain? How are things changing? Why do they talk about the weather so much? All you need to know about life in Britain..

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight’s account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook. Rich and diverse, The Canterbury Tales offer us an unrivalled glimpse into the life and mind of medieval England.

Beautiful, clever, rich—and single—Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her prot?g?e, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen’s most flawless work.

Katherine Mansfield is one of the most famous short story writers in the English language. These four stories take place about a hundred years ago in England and New Zealand. They are sometimes funny, sometimes sad and often cruel.

London is the biggest city in Britain and in Europe. In 1900, it was the biggest city in the world. In this book you will find a lot of interesting information about London. You will read about its history. You will learn about its famous people, museums and palaces of this exciting city.

The story of the Canterville Ghost was of an old English country house, Canterville Chase, which has all the accoutrements of a traditional haunted house. Descriptions of the wainscoting, the library panelled in black oak, and the armour in the hallway characterize the Gothic setting. Wilde mixes the macabre with comedy, juxtaposing devices from traditional English ghost stories such as creaking floorboards, clanking chains, and ancient prophecies with symbols of contemporary American consumerism.

The Green Mile is a 1996 serial novel written by Stephen King. It tells the story of death row supervisor Paul Edgecombe’s encounter with John Coffey, an unusual inmate who displays inexplicable healing and empathetic abilities. The serial novel was originally released in six volumes before being republished as a single volume work. The book is an example of magical realism.

At Baskerville Hall on the grim moors of Devonshire, a legendary curse has apparently claimed one more victim. Sir Charles Baskerville has been found dead. There are no signs of violence, but his face is hideously distorted with terror. Years earlier, a hound-like beast with blazing eyes and dripping jaws was reported to have torn out the throat of Hugo Baskerville. Has the spectral destroyer struck again? More important, is Sir Henry Baskerville, younger heir to the estate, now in danger?

Enter Sherlock Holmes, summoned to protect Sir Henry from the fate that has threatened the Baskerville family. As Holmes and Watson begin to investigate, a blood-chilling howl from the fog-shrouded edges of the great Grimpen Mire signals that the legendary hound of the Baskervilles is poised for yet another murderous attack.

London — two thousand years of history. From the Romans and King Henry the Eighth to the city of today and tomorrow — and from St Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace to Petticoat Lane Market and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. The rich and exciting life of a great city — and some of the people who helped to make it.

Tom Sawyer loves adventures. He has a lot of adventures at home, at school, and with his friends. He has one adventure in a cave. But why is he there? What does he see in the cave? And why is he afraid?

Who wants to live in a house, wear clean clothes, be good, and go to school every day? Not young Huckleberry Finn, that’s for sure. So Huck runs away, and is soon floating down the great Mississippi River on a raft. With him is Jim, a black slave who is also running away. But life is not always easy for the two friends. And there’s 300 dollars waiting for anyone who catches poor Jim…

‘I often walked along the shore, and one day I saw something in the sand. I went over to look at it more carefully… It was a footprint — the footprint of a man!’. In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a small island off the coast of South America. After fifteen years alone, he suddenly learns that there is another person on the island. But will this man be a friend — or an enemy?

There, on top of the mushroom, was a large caterpillar, smoking a pipe. After a while the Caterpillar took the pipe out of its mouth and said to Alice in a slow, sleepy voice, ‘Who are you?’ What strange things happen when Alice falls down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland! She has conversations with the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, goes to the Mad Hatter’s tea party, plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts…

When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs — big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life — how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow… and how to fight. Because when a dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.

‘When we are happy, we are always good’, says Lord Henry, ‘but when we are good, we are not always happy.’ Lord Henry’s lazy, clever words lead the young Dorian Gray into a world where it is better to be beautiful than to be good; a world where anything can be forgiven — even murder — if it can make people laugh at a dinner party.

Contemporary / British English Everybody tells Forrest Gump that he’s an idiot. But he’s a great football player, and he plays the harmonica beautifully. He’s also a brave soldier. But can he ever marry the girl he loves? This story of his journey through life is sometimes sad and sometimes very funny.

Moby Dick is the most dangerous whale in the oceans. Captain Ahab fought him and lost a leg. Now he hates Moby Dick. He wants to kill him. But can Captain Ahab and his men find the great white whale? A young sailor, Ishmael, tells the story of their exciting and dangerous trip.

Three stories, three ghosts: a picture in a tower depicts a dangerous woman; a young woman marries an older man and arrives at his house, only to find that his dead wife is still there; and a dead man walks through a house every night, because sometimes the dead do come back.

Claire is staying with her aunt Min. There is an old castle with a black tower in the village. It has a dangerous secret – accidents happen there, animals and people die. One day, Claire goes to the castle. She wants to know its secret.

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, but Jane Austen had worked on the initial draft as early as 1796 as she was visiting her brother at Goodnestone Park in Kent. She was twenty year old by then and had her writing skills already sharpen by a first novel, Sense and Sensibility, and polished by years of reading her prose aloud to family and friends. A few months earlier, she had flirted with Thomas Langlois Lefroy, an Irish law student visiting her neighbours in Steventon, Hampshire. As both lacked financial resources, living out that love was no option.

All first impressions, freshness and self-irony of Jane flew into the manuscript of what remains today one of the most envied works of English literature…

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of «buccaneers and buried gold». First published as a book on 23 May 1883, it was originally serialized in the children’s magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 under the title Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North. Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, Treasure Island is a tale noted for its atmosphere, characters and action, and also as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality – as seen in Long John Silver – unusual for children’s literature. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perceptions of pirates is enormous, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an «X», schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.