This edition of The Three Musketeers contains a retold novel, an introduction, notes on the author, notes on the period when the book is set, the book's themes, a simple glossary, and a free CD (running time 2 hours). The book on the CD is read slowly and clearly to aid comprehension. This novel set in the 17th century is an exciting adventure story about a young man called d'Artagnan who leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard. The three musketeers (of the title of the book) are his friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis whose motto is 'one for all, all for one'. Dumas was writing about the old regime in France so puts his musketeers through adventures that take the friends through many absurd quests, and injustices to expose things that had happened before the French Revolution. The musketeers provide exciting entertainment. Dumas wrote two more novels about the three musketeers. The book has inspired films, musicals and plays, and was written as a serial first, published in a magazine.

This edition of Robinson Crusoe contains a retold novel, an introduction, notes on the author, notes on the background when the book was written and the book's themes, a glossary, and a free CD (running time 2 hours). The CD is read slowly and clearly to aid comprehension. It is suitable for students, schools, ELT, ESOL. Robinson Crusoe leaves his family for sea adventures but after a shipwreck is stranded on a desert island in the Caribbean for 28 years. Defoe's novel was published in 1719 but was set in the 1680s at the time of naval exploration, and the beginnings of slavery. Crusoe salvages some supplies from the wrecked ship. As the days go by, he builds a fort and a small area for animals. He gathers fruit, grows crops, keeps goats, hunts, and protects his 'castle'. In his diaries he records his progress. He also records how he reads the Bible and becomes religious. After more than 20 years on the island, Crusoe encounters cannibals, which represent the first human contact he's had since being shipwrecked. He finds a footprint, which he runs away from, but then rescues a man he calls Friday from cannibals. Friday becomes his servant. Robinson finally makes an escape when a ship of mutineers arrives on the island. Robinson and his companions help the British captain to take back control of the ship. Robinson arrives home in England to find he is wealthy after an absence of 35 years. The story, told in a journalistic way because of the way he narrates his life and records all the facts, is about how a lonely human can survive alone when hardship comes. It is also a story of how a man can create his own reality out a wilderness on a desert island. Robinson Crusoe is an important figure in literature, and his name is synonymous with a lonely man living alone on a desert island and surviving.

This Reader will be published in mid-April. This edition of Pride and Prejudice contains a retold novel, an introduction, notes on the Jane Austen notes on the Regency period, the book's themes, a simple glossary, and a free CD (running time 2 hours). The book on the CD is read slowly andclearly to aid comprehension. Jane Austen's classic novel is an ironic comedy of manners that prevailed in the society of the late 18th century, and early 19th century. Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet who has four sisters, and Mr Bennet, her long-suffering but loving father, and Mrs Bennet, her mother, anxious to marry her daughters to wealthy young gentlemen. At a local ball, Elizabeth meets one such wealthy young man, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. Mr Darcy is cold, rude and proud, and it is dislike at first sight. As Elizabeth's older sister Jane falls in love with Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy's best friend, and her youngest sister Lydia flirts with anyone in a military uniform, Lizzie finds herself fighting off the attentions of the oily Mr Collins but is quite taken by the charms of Mr Wickham - who also happens to be the godson of Mr. Darcy's father, and is now an enemy of Mr. Darcy through his bad behaviour although in this edition he is presented as a lovable rogue. As the young people succumb in many ways to pride and prejudice, Lizzie learns that not all is quite as it seems ...and that Mr Darcy might be more agreeable than she first thought. In Jane Austen's time, a social hierarchy in English society governed what one could say or do. Social rank determined one's social class and whom one could marry. Pride and Prejudice is an entertaining, skilfully written novel written with ironic observation of social behaviour and stands up today because of Austen's storytelling, wit and phrasing, and humour.