SARA's Books — retells

Classics, made readable.

Seven great books, retold in plain English and set beside the original — page for page, so you can look across at any moment. Tap a word you don't know and it tells you what it means.

Start reading freeSee the seven books

The opening chapters of every book are free. No sign-up to start.

The list

Every book opens free. Read as far as the free chapters go before deciding anything.

How a retelling reads

  1. 1

    Read the retelling

    The whole book in plain modern English — every chapter, in order, nothing skipped or summarised away.

  2. 2

    Open the original beside it

    The author's own words in a second pane, scrolling in step with the retelling so you never lose your place in either.

  3. 3

    Tap any word

    A meaning, or a translation out of the Greek, Spanish, or German — without leaving the sentence you're in.

Why I publish these

The difference between floundering and fledging is immersion in a suitable environment. For someone who wants a great book and can't yet read it, that environment isn't a later, easier book — it's this book, in words they can read, with the author's own beside them.

These seven are the first list from the SARA's Books imprint, which I edit myself, alongside my own Sara and the Pooka. Another fifty titles are queued behind them — Treasure Island, Pinocchio, The Three Musketeers, Romeo and Juliet — and in time the imprint will publish original work from new artists too.

Read about Sara and the Pooka

Open a book.

Free chapters on every title. Buy a single book once, or take a membership and read all of them.

Start reading freeSee membership