Learn languages by reading books you always meant to read.
Beletria turns classic books from the public domain into a reading lesson: one sentence at a time, every word and every sentence explained, with native audio. Free, with no ads.
Works in the browser, on any phone. Sign in with Google.
How it works
- 1
Pick a book
Fairy tales at one end, Dumas at the other. Every title is a real book from the public domain, marked with its CEFR level, from A1 to C2, so you can start where you are.
- 2
Read one sentence at a time
The page shows the sentence you are on. Tap any word for its meaning in this sentence, check the translation, open a short explanation of the grammar you just met, or hear it read aloud.
- 3
Keep the words
Save a word with one tap. Later, train your saved words with flip cards, mark the ones you know, and watch how much of each book you can already read.
On the shelf
15 books today. Every sentence is prepared, checked and cached before you reach it; the long novels grow in stretches, and the shelf says how far each one reaches. Levels follow the CEFR scale, from A1 for a fairy tale to C1 for a novel that sends native readers to a dictionary.
German12 books
- A2AschenputtelJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2Das tapfere SchneiderleinJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne HeinrichJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2Der Wolf und die sieben jungen GeissleinJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2Die Bremer StadtmusikantenJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2DornröschenJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2Hänsel und GretelJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2RotkäppchenJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2RumpelstilzchenJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- A2SneewittchenJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- B1Durch die WüsteKarl May
- B2Der SandmannE. T. A. Hoffmann
French3 books
- B2Le Comte de Monte-Cristo — Tome IAlexandre Dumas, Auguste Maquet
- B2Le Mystère de la chambre jauneGaston Leroux
- B2Vingt mille lieues sous les mersJules Verne
Why read, rather than drill
Sentences written for a lesson teach you the lesson. Sentences written by Dumas or the Grimms teach you the language, because every one of them was written to be read, and because you want to know what happens next.
The trouble with a real book has always been the dictionary. Beletria puts the dictionary, the translation and a patient grammar note one tap away, so a page that would have taken an evening takes a coffee.
From the blog
- 14 September 2026
Hello, Beletria
The app is live at app.beletria.com. Here is what it is, why it exists, and what this blog is for.
Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes. Every book, every word, every clip of audio. There are no ads and nothing to unlock.
- Which languages?
- German and French to begin with. More come when the shelf for those two is good.
- Do I need an account?
- You can browse the shelf without one. Reading, saving words and picking up where you left off need a sign-in with Google, so your words follow you between devices. Setup asks for a name and which language you want to read, nothing more.
- Where do the books come from?
- From the public domain: authors who died long enough ago that their work belongs to everyone. The text is the original, not a simplified retelling.
- How are the explanations made?
- Every sentence is prepared ahead of time with a language model, checked against the text, and cached. Nothing is generated while you read, and none of your reading is sent to a model.
- Is there audio?
- Yes, recorded with native voices, one sentence at a time. Today the opening of every book is recorded, and more is added as readers go further into it.
- Does it work on a phone?
- It is built for one. Open the app in your phone’s browser; there is nothing to install.
- What if the book I want is not there?
- Ask for it. The shelf has a request form, and requests decide which public-domain titles are prepared next.
Open a book tonight
The first sentence of a fairy tale is a good place to start. The first sentence of Monte-Cristo is a better story.
Start reading