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 bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides.”
Your shelf in a year.
Twelve finished books, on one shelf, in twelve months.
Just the books
Free Kindle and EPUB downloads for all twelve classics. 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 Classicly?
Classicly 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.
Seven 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.
Three small steps. Twelve big books.
Sign up and get your first book
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.
Sign up for the tracker, bookmark, and quiz
Drop a bookmark inside any chapter, watch the daily bar fill as you log pages, and take a ten-question quiz at the end of each book to mark it finished. Free downloads work without an account; the tracker is members-only.
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. The next is revealed when you finish the current.
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.
Download free Kindle file (Gutenberg) →Download free EPUB (Apple Books, Kobo) →Buy paperback on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Classicly 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 reveal is part of the plan. You will know your next book the day you finish the current one.
If you have ever said any of these, Classicly is for you.
That is the entire reason Classicly 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 Classicly 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 Classicly 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 Classicly to improve my English or my vocabulary?+
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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