Free books to read while you listen

Public-domain classics, each paired with a volunteer-read audiobook and synced sentence by sentence. Open one and the highlight follows the narrator; tap any word to see it translated into your language.

Free to read along on every plan — no account needed to start.

A2 A2 · Elementary

Simple, everyday language — fairy tales and children's classics, often stories you already know in your own language.

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum A2 3 h 45 min
• Grimms' Fairy Tales Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm A2 11 h 7 min
• Andersen's Fairy Tales H. C. Andersen A2 5 h 51 min
• Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne A2 2 h 54 min
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz L. Frank Baum A2 4 h 24 min

B1 B1 · Intermediate

Plain storytelling with a wider vocabulary. A good first novel once you can follow a conversation.

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll B1 2 h 59 min
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain B1 6 h 46 min
• Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson B1 7 h 33 min
• Peter Pan : $b [Peter and Wendy] J. M. Barrie B1 5 h 22 min
• The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling B1 5 h 2 min
• The Call of the Wild Jack London B1 3 h 34 min
• The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain B1 6 h 56 min
• White Fang Jack London B1 7 h 44 min

B2 B2 · Upper intermediate

Full-length novels in natural, sometimes old-fashioned language. New words on every page — the narration carries you through them.

• Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen B2 13 h 25 min
• The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas & Auguste Maquet B2 54 h 16 min
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle B2 13 h 29 min
• Dracula Bram Stoker B2 15 h 59 min
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson B2 3 h 8 min
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass B2 4 h 3 min
• The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald B2 4 h 57 min
• Cranford Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell B2 6 h 7 min
• Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain B2 14 h 47 min
• The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde B2 9 h 30 min
• The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells B2 6 h 36 min

C1 C1 · Advanced

Dense literary prose: long sentences, rare words and plenty of nineteenth-century style.

• Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky C1 19 h 53 min
• Middlemarch George Eliot C1 35 h 2 min
• Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley C1 7 h 26 min
• Jane Eyre: An Autobiography Charlotte Brontë C1 18 h 36 min
• The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare G. K. Chesterton C1 6 h 1 min
• The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky C1 46 h 25 min

C2 C2 · Proficient

Demanding classics — archaic language, verse or long digressions. A challenge even for advanced readers.

• Moby Dick; Or, The Whale Herman Melville C2 24 h 38 min
• Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare C2 3 h 15 min
• The Expedition of Humphry Clinker T. Smollett C2 17 h 32 min
• History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding C2 33 h 8 min
• The Adventures of Roderick Random T. Smollett C2 19 h 9 min
• Ulysses James Joyce C2 32 h 39 min
• Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche C2 16 h 24 min