Learn English with 20th Century Literature

Enhance your English language skills with literature! This course is designed for upper-intermediate to advanced English learners who are passionate about reading and want to improve their fluency through engaging stories.

Dive into the first few chapters of nine captivating literary works, carefully selected to boost your vocabulary and grammar. You'll encounter recurring English grammar points and vocabulary, reinforcing your learning through repetition – a key to language acquisition!

Each lesson is broken down into manageable 10-minute segments, followed by a quick quiz to ensure comprehension.

Here's a look at the books we'll explore:

• The Guardians by John Christopher: A thrilling dystopian fiction novel, reminiscent of 1984 and Brave New World, but with a more exciting plot. We'll focus on correlative conjunctions, lists, and parallel structure. This book offers accessible language, making it ideal for building confidence.
• The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain: A classic crime novel steeped in the noir genre. This text is rich in phrasal verbs, crucial for natural English fluency, which we'll thoroughly examine.
• Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway: A powerful short story showcasing the effective use of ellipsis (omission of words) and substitution (pronouns) – key grammar topics explored through Hemingway's masterful writing.
• Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith: Another compelling crime novel featuring intriguing characters. We'll concentrate on narrative tenses (past tenses) and perfect modal forms (modal + have + past participle).
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey: A gripping historical novel where a detective investigates a centuries-old mystery. We'll analyze perfect forms of gerunds and to-plus infinitive.
• The Iron Heel by Jack London: A thought-provoking political novel with a strong socialist protagonist. This book provides excellent practice with subject-auxiliary verb inversion.
• Waterland by Graham Swift: An emotionally resonant story exploring personal history. We'll analyze the various functions of "would" and "as" within the narrative.
• A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters by Julian Barnes: A collection of interconnected short stories, offering further opportunities to practice phrasal verbs.
• Mr. Know-All by Somerset Maugham: A concise and engaging short story perfect for reviewing gerunds and infinitives.

Please note: The Guardians, Waterland, and A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters are not freely available online and require purchase. All other books are accessible on free websites like Project Gutenberg.

Improve your advanced English and enjoy the pleasure of reading!