The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe, 1843A man insists he is perfectly sane as he describes, in careful detail, the crime he committed, and the sound he cannot stop hearing.
Read it for: an unreliable narratorAbout 10 min read
Free Library
Classic stories, free to read.
Brilliant stories by writers every young reader should meet. Read them here, or download a PDF to print. Each one comes with questions to think about and a writing task.
The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry, 1905With one dollar and eighty-seven cents and Christmas the next day, Della must find a way to buy her husband a present worthy of him.
Read it for: a twist ending that is set up from the first lineAbout 10 min readThe Red-Headed League
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891A pawnbroker is paid handsomely to copy out an encyclopaedia simply because he has red hair. Sherlock Holmes suspects there is more to it.
Read it for: planting clues fairlyAbout 46 min readThe Open Window
Saki, 1914A nervous visitor arrives at a country house, where the host's niece tells him a tragic story about the window that is always left open.
Read it for: a twist, and a character who lies wellAbout 6 min readThe Signal-Man
Charles Dickens, 1866A traveller befriends a lonely railway signalman who is haunted by a figure that appears at the mouth of the tunnel before every disaster.
Read it for: building dread through settingAbout 25 min readThe Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde, 1888A golden statue that can see all the sadness of his city asks a little swallow to help him give away everything he has.
Read it for: imagery and a story with a messageAbout 17 min readThe Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde, 1888A giant builds a wall to keep children out of his garden, and finds that spring refuses to come.
Read it for: personifying the seasonsAbout 8 min readThe Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902A family legend of a ghostly hound, a death on the lonely moor, and Sherlock Holmes's most famous case.
Read it for: atmosphere and suspense across a whole novelAbout 295 min readThese stories are out of copyright, so they are free for everyone to read, print and share. Texts from Project Gutenberg, typeset by Muzayrah.
The bookshelf
Read like a writer. Books we love.
Our picks for teenage readers, chosen for great storytelling and suitable for younger readers too. Each one comes with the writing skill it teaches best.
Most of these books are still under copyright, so borrow them from your school library or buy them from a bookshop. Books marked Free are in our Free Library above.
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