The fiction has been chosen from some of the best writers, old and new, of English novels, short stories and plays.
The non-fiction consists of completely new books specially written for this series, on various aspects of English life and institutions.
The books are meant for serious adult students, and, though the vocabulary is carefully controlled, the style is natural and vigorous, and there is no question of any childish "writing down."
But, to widen the students' knowledge of the language, the same principle has been adopted in this series as in the later books of Essential English.
This article about a book on the United Kingdom or its constituent countries is a stub.