Macmillan Readers (600 headwords)

Professor Verity has invented a machine which forces its subjects to tell the truth. Soon everyone wants to use it.

From the pen of Thomas Hardy comes a story of entangled love. The gentle John Loveday, the trumpet-major of the title, is in love with Anne Garland but she has two other suitors. Who will she choose?

Charles Dickens often thrilled audiences by reading aloud these tales of the supernatural.

A romantic thriller set in a fictional European country in the 1890s.

An adventure thriller. Who is the running girl who pushes a cassette of film into Pete's hand in the shopping mall? His curiosity piqued, Pete takes the pictures to be developed and the mystery deepens.

A gothic romance set in the twilight world of Paris in the 1870s. This story has been the basis of many films and plays, as well as a world famous musical.

Three university students go on holiday to a remote part of Wales. They are going to stay in a cottage without electricity or a telephone in a remote part of the country. But who is the bearded man that haunts them?

Five stories set in the USA between the end of the 1890s and the early 1900s, which are splendid examples of the wit and invention of one of America's best-loved writers. Includes: The Good Burglar, The Last Leaf, A Lesson in Love, The Jeweller's Wife, The Car is Waiting.

Paul realises he will never be able to marry Maria if he remains poor. When he wins the story competition, he believes his problems are over. Can he marry Maria now?

Two quiet scholars have dreadful surprises in this pair of classic nineteenth century horror stories.

Four members of a team making a geological survey for a mining company find themselves trapped deep in a forest when they are delayed by heavy rains. Can Leon successfully lead them to safety?

It is the summer of 1797 and the officers of the British Navy fear that there will be further mutinies amongst the sailors who have had to endure the terrible conditions on board British ships. Billy Budd is handsome, strong, reliable, efficient and loyal. But he is victimised by Claggart, the vindictive and cruel master-at-arms, who accuses him of insubordination.