This book provides 14 authentic extracts from modern and classical literature, each exploring a different theme, from the best of English authors and novels:

* Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
* About a Boy by Nick Hornby
* The Time Machine by H G Wells
* The Beach by Alex Garland
* The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
* A Passage to India by E M Forster
* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
* The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
* Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
* Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
* Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
* The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
* Captain Corelli's Man