Get to grips with set texts and be fully prepared for the AS/A Level exam with the Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions. The Companions are written by experienced lecturers, teachers and examiners and provide comprehensive coverage of characters, themes, plot, language and context with activities in French to consolidate your knowledge of the text. There are also extensive sections on exam preparation and response planning, with a bank of annotated sample answers and practice questions. This guide covers Un sac de billes by Joseph Joffo. Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions are also available for selected Spanish and German set texts.

Geared toward advanced beginners, this dual-language volume offers the convenient, accessible format of English translations on pages facing the matching Spanish text. It introduces such authors as Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Alarcon, Unamuno, and Dario, and such works as "El buscon, Cartas marruecas, El estudiante de Salamanca, "and" Santa." Contents include plays, lyric and narrative verse, and prose of many kinds -- fiction, philosophy, autobiography, and more -- for a generous sampling of the Spanish language's extraordinarily diverse and rich literary history.
The selections begin at around 1550, at the outset of the 100 years known as the Golden Age. Excerpts from the era's major genres and authors include the works of three prominent playwrights, plus pastoral and picaresque novels, religious meditations, and a report from the New World. Three outstanding exponents of the Enlightenment appear here, in addition to contributions from the major Romantic playwrights and poets, several Realist and Naturalist novelists, and the pillars of the Generation of 1898. One-third of the selections are the works of Spanish-American writers. Accurate and up to date, this new translation by Stanley Appelbaum features a detailed Introduction with background on all of the writers and their works.