The Brave Little Tailor and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm

You can read five fairy tales in this book. The stories take us to palaces and a tall tower. They take us into the dark forest. They lead us into fairyland.

Giants, Dragons and Other Magical Creatures

What is a creature? Is it a person? Is it an animal? No, it's something different; something strange. In this book you will meet creatures big and small. Some of them are friendly to people. Some are not friendly at all!

The Monkey King

A magic stone cracks open like an egg. Monkey jumps out! In this book, you will read about Monkey's adventures.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice is sitting by the river when suddenly a white rabbit runs past her. Then the rabbit takes a watch out of its coat pocket, and says it is late! She runs after the rabbit, and follows it into a large rabbit hole. This is how Alice's adventures in Wonderland begin.

The Golden Goose and Other Stories

Three brothers go to cut wood. The two older brothers come home with nothing, but the youngest one is given a bird with golden feathers. Two sisters, one kind, the other horrible, get water from a spring. The kind girl becomes rich. Her sister lives alone and never speaks again. Find out what happened in these and other fairy tales.

Tales from the Arabian Nights

A cruel king marries beautiful young women, but always has their heads cut off in the morning. However, his new wife, Sheherezade, is clever. Every night, she starts to tell him a wonderful story. She tells him about a robbers' cave, full of treasure; she tells him the story of Sinbad the sailor, of a genie in a bottle, of Aladdin and his magic lamp, and many more.

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, are carried by a cyclone from her aunt and uncle's house in Kansas. When they come down, they find themselves in the land of Oz. There Dorothy begins an exciting journey with her new friends. They want to go and see the wonderful Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City. Only he can give them what they want.

A Christmas Carol

A mean, lonely old man has an unpleasant surprise when he reaches the front door of his home on the night before Christmas. As he looks at the door knocker, it turns into the face of a friend who has been dead for many years! This is just the beginning of a long night in which Ebenezer Scrooge talks to his dead friend, and meets three other ghosts.

The Flying Heads and Other Strange Stories

A young man stays in a strange village for the night, and wakes to hear screams from the valley below. He looks out of the window, and sees terrible things flying through the air ... A baker wants to know what his beautiful wife does when she goes out at night. But when he stays up to watch her, he wishes he had never found out her dreadful secret ... Enjoy these strange and frightening stories from all over the world.

Gulliver's Travels — A Voyage to Lilliput

Gulliver's ship is lost in a storm, and he has to swim to save his life. After many hours, he reaches land. He lies down and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he can't get up. He is tied to the ground. His hair is tied down too, so he can't move his head. He feels something walking along his body. There, standing on his chest, is a man. He is no more than six inches tall!

A Midsummer Night's Dream and Other Stories from Shakespeare's Plays

One midsummer night, two lovers run away to the woods where they find two other lovers - and fairies and elves! Read how Viola dresses as a man to become the servant of a prince, and then falls in love with him. You can also read the famous story of the young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who cannot live in peace, because their families hate each other.

The Stone Junk and Other Stories

Most of the stories in this collection are about people, magic and gold. They also tell us what happens when people are too proud, too cruel, or too greedy.

Tales of King Arthur

Young Arthur needs a sword. He runs into a church and finds one stuck in a stone, so he takes it. Then he finds out that only one person in the land can take the sword from the stone, and that person is the true king of Britain. Arthur becomes King, marries a beautiful princess and receives the Round Table as a gift. The table has room for 150 good, brave knights. These tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been popular for over 700 years.

The Talking Tree and Other Stories

Two boys, walking through a forest, suddenly hear a voice coming from a tree. The Talking Tree tells them to bring it food and drink. Scared, the boys do as they are told. Then they notice some marks on the ground, close to the tree. Is the tree really magic, or is someone trying to trick them? There are plenty of surprises in this unusual collection of short stories.

Through the Looking Glass

A little girl called Alice suddenly finds herself in the dreamlike Looking-Glass world, where she seems to be a pawn in a chess game. If, as the Red Queen tells her, she can get as far as the eighth square, then she too can become a Queen.
Find out how Alice gets into this strange world, and what happens when she arrives at the eighth square.

Gulliver's Travels — Further Voyages

Gulliver is abandoned in a land of giants. His life is not always easy. Once he is mistaken for a baby monkey and a monkey tries to feed him! His next voyage is even stranger: he visits an island that floats in the sky.
Read about Gulliver's last voyages and all the amazing adventures he has.

The Merchant of Venice and Other Stories from Shakespeare's Plays

Shylock, the moneylender, hates Antonio and wants to hurt him. He has an idea. He lends money to Antonio. If Antonio cannot pay back the money, he must give Shylock a pound of his flesh. From cold, dark Scotland to the blue sky of the Mediterranean, from the Danish court to the court of Britain long ago, these five well-known stories are filled with murder, madness and magic.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

When Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew, Axel, find a secret paper telling them the way to the centre of the earth, the adventure of a lifetime begins. With a guide called Hans, they discover the mysteries and wonders of the world below the earth's surface.

King Solomon's Mines

Quatermain is returning home from a bad hunting trip, and he does not want any more adventures. But then he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and soon the three of them are on a dangerous journey into the heart of Africa, in search of King Solomon's Mines.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

A beautiful young man called Dorian Gray has his portrait painted. He prays that as he gets older, his face will never change and instead the face in the portrait will age. His prayer is answered. As Dorian goes on to explore the pleasures of London, the face in his portrait becomes wrinkled and twisted with cruelty and lust.

Seven Stories

Clayton meets a ghost, and Fotheringay has lots of fun when he discovers that he can work miracles. There are also exciting stories in this collection about a boy who seems to have found heaven; a liquid which makes people move much faster than normal; and an apple which will give anyone who eats it endless knowledge.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

A strange monster has attacked several ships at sea. Professor Arronax, the famous French scientist, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land, who catches whales, join an expedition to search for the monster. What they find, however, is not a living creature at all, but an enormous submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo.

The War of the Worlds

The world has suddenly changed. The small towns and villages of southern England are lying burned and ruined. The grass on the commons, and the trees in the woods have been blackened by fire. There are no people to be seen.
This is the story of the strange and terrible things that happened to ordinary people when the Martians went to war against the Earth.

The Woman in White

Walter Hartright meets a mysterious woman dressed completely in white, who curiously knows the family he is going to work for as a drawing teacher. Walter soon discovers that the mysterious woman looks very like the woman he has fallen in love with, the beautiful Laura Fairlie. Why is the woman in white so concerned about Laura Fairlie, and why do they look so similar? Can Walter help her before it is too late?

Dracula

Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor, goes to see Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania. He discovers that the Count is a vampire—a terrible Un-Dead creature who lives on human blood. And now the Count is going to London ...

Frankenstein

On the way to the North Pole, Robert Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who seems exhausted and near death. 'Let me tell you my tale,' says Frankenstein.
There follows the extraordinary story of how Frankenstein discovered how to make a giant man from parts of dead bodies. However, the man turned against him, and became a monster ...

The Stalled Ox and Other Stories

What would you do if a large ox got into your garden? A lady who dies and comes back as an animal; a man whose holiday is disturbed by witches; another man who finds a werewolf in his woods ... These are all part of Saki's strange and hilarious stories, set against the background of British upper-class life.