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Here is a selection of Oxford University Press Classics at Stage 5
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David Copperfield by CHARLES DICKENS
'Please ,Mr.Murdstone! Don't beat me! I've tried to learn my lessons , really I have,sir!' sobs David . Although David is only eight years old , Mr. Murdstone does beat him,and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather's hand.For that, he is kept locked in his room for five days and nights , and nobody is allowed to speak to him . As David grows up , he learns that life is full of trouble and misery and cruelty.But he also finds laughter and kindness , trust and friendship ... and love. |
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Brat Farrar by JOSEPHINE TEY
'You look exactly like him!You can take the dead boy's place and no one will ever know the difference. You'll be rich for life! And so the plan was born . At first Brat Farrar fought against the idea;it was criminal, it was dangerous . But in the end hewas persuaded ,and a few weeks later Patrick Ashby came back from the dead and went home to inherit the family fortune.The Ashby family seemed happy to welcome Patrick home, but Brat soon realized that somewhere there was a time-bomb ticking away, waiting to explode .
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Far from the Madding Crowd by THOMAS HARDY
Bathsheba Everdene is young ,proud ,and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses. In fact, she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man's world . But it's never wise to ignore the power of love.There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba.When she falls in love with one of them , she soon wishes she had kept her independence . She learns that love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives ... |
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Great Expectations by CHARLES DICKENS
In a gloomy ,neglected house Miss Havisham sits , as she has sat year after, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white , and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death's head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate . By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her , trembling with fear in his trick country boots, stands young Pip. Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the gril at her side : 'Break his heart,Estella.Break his heart!'
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The Garden Party and Other Stories by CATHERINE MANSFIELD
Oh,how delightful it is to fall in love for the first time! How exciting to go to your first dance when you are a girl of eighteen! But life can also be hard and cruel, if you are young and inexperienced and travelling alone across Europe... or if you are a child from the wrong social class... or a singer without work and the rent to be paid. Set in Europe and New Zeland, these nine stories by Katherine Mansfield dig deep beneath the appearances of life to show us the causes of human happiness and despair. |
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Ghost Stories retold by ROSEMARY BORDER
After dinner we turned the lights out and played 'hide-and-seek'. In the dark, I touched a hand , very cold hand. Now, because of the game, I had to hide in the dark with ... with this cold person-not speaking,not knowing who it was . Slowly the others found us ,hid with us,until we were all there-all thirteen. Thirteen ? But there were only twelve people in the house! We touched each other in the dark, counting.Thirteen.Quickly,nervously, I lit a match to see ...
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Wuthering Heights by EMILY BRONTE
The wind is strong on the Yorkshire moors.There are few trees,and fewer houses,to block its path. There is one house ,however,that doesn't hide from the wind . It stands out from the hill and challenges the wind to do its worst. The house is called Wuthering Heights. When Mr. Earnshaw brings a strange ,small,dark child back home to Wuthering Heights,it seems he has opened his doors to trouble. He has invited in something that , like the wind,is safer kept out of the house . |
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