Long ago, a powerful king named Midas lived in a place called Phyrgia. Midas had a large kingdom, a beautiful palace, and a loving daughter. But the thing Midas loved most of all was gold. One day, a god gave Midas the power to turn everything he touches into gold. But was this power a blessing, or a curse?

Sherlock Holmes is a great detective. There are few cases that he cannot solve. In these three stories we meet a young woman who is terrified of a mysterious ‘speckled band’, a family who think that five orange pips are a sign of death, and a banker who believes that his son is a thief. But are things really as they seem?

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything: money, influential friends and fabulous parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion is full of beautiful people laughing and dancing and talking about their mysterious host.

Discovering Fiction, Second Edition, Student's Book 2 presents stories with universal appeal to engage students and make them think. Among the authors included are Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kate Chopin, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and Shirley Jackson.

After strange lights appear on the planet Mars, large metal objects begin to fall out of the sky. What happens next changes the world forever. Will the people of Earth survive? What will happen to the society we know? And how can we avoid disaster?

Young Ishmael sets out on the whaling ship "Pequod" hoping to free himself from his earthly anger and sorrow. But the mad Captain Ahab, who hunts for the whale that tore off his leg, heads the great ship into dangerous waters. Will the "Pequod" return safely? Or will Ahab´s obsession with his mortal enemy end in death? Herman Melvilles´s fearsome adventure is the great American novel.

Levy, an old Greek sailor, takes on his last job and discovers that the cargo on board is not what he expected. Molly, an American teenager finds a body on the beach when she’s walking her dog. What happens when Levy tells the captain? Why does the body disappear? And how are Levy and Molly connected?

When teen hackers Tricia and Daniel discover that a local company could be involved in a sinister plot to trade carbon, they suddenly find that their lives are in danger. How is Tricia’s father involved? Can Tricia protect her family and Daniel?

Jake hasn’t seen his archaeologist father for five years, but now he is going to spend his summer holiday with him in Greece. Jake arrives in Athens airport, but his father is nowhere to be seen. When the local police show little interest in the case Jake decides to investigate his father’s disappearance himself.

Bruno, a poor coconut seller from the favela, meets Clara, a beautiful rich girl from Rio de Janeiro’s wealthy Ipanema area, and they fall in love. But Clara’s father doesn’t approve and stops the relationship. Then Zeca, a criminal from Bruno’s past, tries to blackmail Bruno into helping him make some easy money.

When Josh meets Trish and Suzi at their first day of college in London, little do they know that they will soon be swept up into a mystery involving the British and Yolandan governments. Luckily for them, Morrow, a British Security Service agent, takes them under his wing.

When Caterina finds her great-great grandmother’s diary in the attic she reads about her difficult life as a child worker in the local mill. Caterina starts thinking and soon she has started a campaign against a local boutique that sells cheap fashionable clothes. However the shop belongs to Jake’s Uncle Sanjit.

Architecture student, Sibel Karaman, receives a letter from Great-Uncle Ismail on the day of his death. He leaves her a mystery to solve which takes her and Aunt Sofia on a wonderful adventure to three beautiful cities: London, Venice and Istanbul.

Have you ever wondered what a rock star’s life can be like? When Nic Wild from the Wild Kats asks his son Andy to perform with him at a concert in Paris, little does he know that terrible things are about to happen to him. Where is Alan Carver, Nic’s manager, when he needs him most? How does Andy save the day with his accountancy skills?

When Lewis Morrow escapes from his captors and a sure death he makes a new life for himself as a taxi driver in Paris. He thinks he has left everything behind until one day he sees three young people he once helped in London.

Three stories to leave you wondering about life and the supernatural by the master of ghost stories, Edgar Allan Poe.

When beautiful young American Daisy Miller travels to Europe with her wealthy but unaristocratic mother, her innocent and friendly manner makes her more enemies than friends.

When an American family buy an old English mansion, they also inherit its terrible ghost. The ghost sets about frightening the new owners, but the Americans don’t frighten easily and the ghost gets more than he had bargained for.

When respectable Dr Jekyll starts associating with the mysterious Mr Hyde, his friends become increasingly worried. Who is Hyde and why do all the people he meets dislike him? Stevenson’s classic tale of the human capacity for evil is retold with all the tension and Gothic drama of the original.