LETTURE IN LINGUA

The action takes place in London, in 1923, five years after the First War World and relates a single day in the life of Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class woman, who prepares for one of her charming evening parties. On that day Clarissa’s life is affected by several people she comes into contact with, particularly with the life of Septimus Warren Smith, a mentally damaged war veteran. Virginia Woolf reveals the differences in the way people think and see and treat one another, particularly she recounts the thoughts, the doubts, the worries and the feelings of Mrs Dalloway.

The text includes a variety of activities for the four skills and dossiers to discover more about cultural and historical aspects and Mp3 files.

Dorian Gray is new in London and his life changes when he meets the painter Basil Hallward and his friend Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry encourages Dorian to live for beauty and youth. This leads Dorian on a strange adventure through the city and society, its theatres and romances, where appearances and intentions do not always match.

Dorian begins to discover not just the glitz of Lord Henry’s circle, but the horror and darkness hiding not too far beneath the surface. The text includes a variety of activities for the four skills and dossiers to explore and expand the cultural and historical aspects associated with the story. The volume also provides a recording of some parts of the text.

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, set in 17th century Puritan Boston, tells the dramatic tale of Hester Prynne, the young mother of an illegitimate child, condemned to wear a scarlet letter A, the humiliating symbol that identifies her as an adulteress. In this volume, the story is written in a more simplified language with the use of modern English.

The text includes an introduction to Hawthorne’s life and works; a variety of activities for the four skills; Pet-style level B1 tests; and dossiers to explore and expand the cultural and historical aspects associated with the story.

The volume ends with an exit test and provides a recording of some parts of the text.

Welcome to 1984, the world of Big Brother!

A world where the laws of nature obey the laws of the Party, where love is a crime and history is pure fiction. You will never be alone here, not even with your own thoughts, as the telescreen keeps a vigilant eye on you. This is a world where choosing friends and trusting your family can be a choice between life and death.

Winston Smith lives alone and works in the Ministry of Truth rewriting the past. But he writes the real truth in his diary hidden away from the telescreen. When he falls in love with Julia, he becomes a danger to the Party and soon learns what it means to be different.

This book speaks to us today more than ever.

After experiencing a ghostly visitation whilst staying at Wuthering Heights, a visitor to the moors is told the story of those who once lived, and those that still reside at the mysterious house. So begins one of the most passionate and tragic stories to ever grace English literature; where the passion and hatred of one man threaten to destroy not only him but all of those around him. Consumed by bitterness and heartache at the loss of his one true love, Heathcliff will stop at nothing to bring ruin and misery to the two families he feels are responsible for his fate. Yet in the end, it might be that love will still, eventually, conquer all.

The brooding majesty of Emily Bronte’s classic novel has enthralled readers since its first publication in 1836. Here it has been retold using language which will be familiar to readers at a B1+/B2 level. The volume is complete with activities and exercises which provide useful tools for certificate/exam attainment, as well as dossiers that explore the cultural aspects associated with the historical and literary period in which the author lived.

Aged by his obsessive fears, Roderick Usher confines himself inside his inhospitable mansion with his cataleptic sister. Lost in his blossoming work of art, a painter becomes blind to the vanishing life of his loving wife. Fallen into the depths of madness and murder, a man lucidly recalls the stages of his own personal descent into hell, watched by the sagacity of a strangely faithful cat.

With The Fall of the House of Usher, The Oval Portrait and The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe’s mastery of prose records the intricacies and mysteries of the human psyche, transforming the Gothic story into the chronicle of a ghostly crime.

This volume offers the opportunity to enjoy an original text while learning at the same time: notes and language activities help the reader to follow the stories, appreciate aspects of the writing, memorize vocabulary, focus on and practice language structures. A final section contains further stimuli, contextualizing notes and images.