The twelve classics
you never finished.
Two ways to read them, both free. Download all twelve classics and go at your own pace, or sign up for a structured twelve-month plan with a daily tracker, bookmark, and a short quiz at the end of each book.
“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard.”
Your shelf in a year.
Twelve finished books, on one shelf, in twelve months.
Just the books
All twelve classics, free to read here in the browser. Or buy on Amazon. No account, no email needed.
Browse all twelve books →Finish all twelve
A daily page goal, progress bar, bookmark in any chapter, and a ten-question quiz at the end of each book. Built so you actually finish.
Free forever. No credit card.
What is readClassicly?
readClassicly is a free reading plan for classic books. The plan gives you one book at a time, a simple daily page goal, a reading tracker, and a short quiz to check what you actually read before the next book unlocks.
Twelve public-domain classics, hand-picked for adults. Read on the site, download for Kindle, or use a paper copy, your choice. The plan adapts to your pace. No streaks, no shame.
8 pages a day. That is the whole plan.
Twelve classics add up to about 2,640 pages. Spread across a year, that is around fifteen to twenty-five minutes of reading a day, depending on your pace. The plan adapts as you read.
Some books are shorter (Kafka in one evening, Gilman in a lunch break). Some are longer (Crime and Punishment will take a month). The average is the point.
The twelve are the destination, not the starting line.
The library is the ladder that gets you there.
These twelve books are part of the foundation: stories, characters and ideas that later books, films and conversations keep referring back to. Reading them means recognizing references that used to pass you by.
If a page of Dostoevsky is a wall right now, that is a rung, not a verdict. Underneath the twelve is a seven-rung ladder, beginning with stories you can finish in four minutes and ending with whole novels. Every text is free, and most include read-along audio.
Thirty short stories for beginner English readers
Four minutes each, with audio. The first rung, and where most new readers start.
Start readingFairy tales and English folk tales
Twenty more stories, still short, still narrated. Grimm, Andersen, and the tales Joseph Jacobs collected in 1890.
Browse the shelvesLonger stories, then whole novels
Fourteen classic short stories, one writer each, in the original text. Then longer tales, then whole books sorted by level, all the way up to these twelve.
See the next rungsThree small steps. Twelve big books.
Open your first book
No sign-up, no quiz before. Just open The Great Gatsby and start. Read on the site, download for Kindle, or grab a paper copy.
Read at your pace, track each day
A daily bar fills as you log the pages you read. If you read ahead, the book closes early. There are no deadlines, only a quiet rhythm.
Finish the book, take the quiz, move on
Ten questions at the end mark a book as read and open the next one on your shelf. A free account is what remembers your place, your vocabulary and your pace across devices — reading itself never needs one.
Read more than the day asked? The book finishes early. Skipped a day? Tomorrow asks for a few more. The plan adapts.
Twelve classics, hand-picked for adults who want to finally read them.
From Fitzgerald to Kafka, Austen to Dostoevsky. All public domain, all rated B1 to C1 English so an intermediate reader can finish them, and all open from the first day.
The Great Gatsby
Read on Kindle, phone, or paper↓
Works on physical Kindle, the free Kindle app (iPhone, Android, Mac, PC), or in any browser at read.amazon.com.
Buy paperback on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, readClassicly earns from qualifying purchases.
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”
If this reads at a comfortable pace, the rest of the plan will too. If it’s a stretch, that is the point, Gatsby is the upper edge. Most books in the plan are easier.
A short novella about a young man who wakes up to discover that something fundamental about him has changed. Strange, dark, sometimes funny. One evening of reading.
A famous Victorian story about regret, generosity, and second chances. Told over the longest night of the year. Warm despite the cold.
A very short, very famous story about a woman, a quiet house, and what she begins to see in the walls. Forty pages. Read in one sitting.
A short gothic novella that gave the language a phrase for the divided self. Pacy, tightly plotted, modern in its anxieties.
A dense, troubling novella about a slow journey upriver, and the questions it forces on the traveller. The hardest prose in the plan.
The original modern horror novel, written when its author was nineteen. About creation, responsibility, and what we make.
A short, then-scandalous novel about a woman's interior awakening on the Gulf Coast in the 1890s. Brief chapters, fast pace.
A novel about beauty, vanity, and what they cost. By the master of the perfect sentence.
A Regency novel about misjudgement, manners, and slow revelation. Sharper and funnier than its reputation.
The great French novel of provincial dissatisfaction. Flaubert was put on trial for it. Translated by Eleanor Marx.
Dostoevsky's most read novel. Saved for last because by then you will have the habit and the appetite for it.
The order is a suggestion, not a lock. Start anywhere, and the plan will keep counting.
If you have ever said any of these, readClassicly is for you.
That is the entire reason readClassicly exists. We hand you book one. The plan handles the rest.
The plan opens with short, accessible classics, and saves Dostoevsky for last. By then you have the habit.
Every book is rated B1, B2, or C1. The early books are intermediate. The harder ones are saved for when you are ready. Real literature, not graded readers.
These twelve novels expose you to the working vocabulary of literary English. You learn words in context, where they actually live.
Twelve is the number a working adult can actually finish. A 30-day reading challenge is a streak. A 12-month plan is a habit.
They aren't. You finish ten thousand summaries and remember none. You finish three real books and they stay with you.
I built readClassicly for myself.
I am in my thirties and never read most of the classics. I skipped them in school, told myself I would catch up later, and never did. Every January I added them to a list. Every December the list was longer and the books were still unread.
I tried summary apps. They feel like cheating, and they are. Six minutes of Dostoevsky is not Dostoevsky. I tried reading apps with thousands of books, and that is worse than no app at all because the choice itself paralyses.
So I built this. One book. Then the next. A quick check between them so you know you actually read it, not just opened it. Twelve books in twelve months sounds modest. For most of us, it would be more than we have finished in the last five years.
The goal is not to look educated. It is to actually be the person you said you would be.
The honest answers.
What is a reading plan?+
Is readClassicly free?+
Are the books public domain?+
How long does it take?+
I don't know where to start reading. Will this help?+
Can I use readClassicly to improve my English or my vocabulary?+
Is readClassicly good for someone still learning English?+
I am a beginner. Should I start with the twelve classics?+
What is the difference between the twelve-book plan and the beginner track?+
Is this a 30-day reading challenge or a 12-month plan?+
What level of English do I need?+
Is it really free?+
Why only twelve books?+
What if I fail the quiz?+
Can I read on Kindle or paper?+
What if I want to read faster than the plan?+
I've already read some of these books, do I have to read them again?+
What happens after I finish all twelve books?+
Start with Gatsby today.
One short novel. Three weeks. Then the next one. You will be a person who reads again.
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