The assigned classics, distilled chapter by chapter: summary, themes, symbols, key quotes, a quiz and flashcards. Same engine as our short stories, scaled up to the big books.
A self-made millionaire throws dazzling parties to win back the one woman he idealized, and the gold-leafed dream curdles into a story about money, longing, and the lies America tells itself.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1595Two teenagers from feuding families fall in love at first sight and chase that love straight into the grave, dragging an entire city toward grief.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1606A loyal Scottish general hears a prophecy that he will be king, murders his way to the throne, and watches his soul rot under the weight of blood and paranoia.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1600A grieving prince is told by his father’s ghost to avenge a murder, and his agonized delay turns the whole rotten court of Denmark into a graveyard.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1603A celebrated Moorish general is poisoned against his own innocent wife by the most cold-bloodedly persuasive villain ever set on a stage.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1595Four young lovers, a troupe of bumbling actors, and a kingdom of mischievous fairies collide in a moonlit wood where love itself goes gloriously haywire.
Read the breakdown → Play · 1599A circle of senators murders Rome's most powerful man to save the republic, only to unleash the civil war and tyranny they hoped to prevent.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1818A brilliant young scientist assembles life from dead matter, then abandons the suffering creature he made, and the two destroy each other across the ice.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1897An ancient Transylvanian count travels to England to spread his undead curse, and a small band of friends races to destroy him before he claims the women they love.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1890A beautiful young man stays forever youthful while his portrait ages and rots with every sin, until he can no longer bear to face what he has become.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1847On the storm-battered Yorkshire moors, a foundling’s thwarted love curdles into a vengeance that gnaws at two families across two generations.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1847A plain, penniless orphan refuses to be diminished, claiming dignity, love, and moral independence in a world built to crush her.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1850In Puritan Boston, a woman branded for adultery wears her shame openly while the man who shares her sin hides his, rotting from within.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1813A quick-witted gentlewoman and a haughty rich man must each dismantle their first impressions before love can survive the marriage market of Regency England.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1861An orphan blacksmith's boy is lifted into wealth by a mysterious benefactor, only to learn that the fortune he craved was built on guilt, illusion, and a love that cannot be bought.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1884A runaway boy and an escaped slave drift down the Mississippi on a raft, and their friendship quietly indicts the conscience of a whole society.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1859Across London and a Paris convulsed by revolution, two men who share a face are bound to one woman, and one of them will choose to die so the other may live.
Read the breakdown → Novel · 1899On a Louisiana summer shore a married woman discovers desires and a self she was never permitted to own, and the cost of that awakening is everything.
Read the breakdown → Epic poem · c. 8th c. BCEAfter ten years of war, a cunning king fights monsters, gods, and the sea itself across ten more years to reach home, where strangers are devouring his house.
Read the breakdown →Frankenstein · Romeo and Juliet · Macbeth · Pride and Prejudice · The Scarlet Letter · more public-domain classics