Easy English Books by Level: Classics from A1 to B2

How to use this list

Pick the level where you understand almost every sentence on the first read. That should be about 95% of the words, with one or two you can guess. If you need the dictionary in every line, step down a level. Reading that feels a little too easy is still doing its job, because you meet the same words again and again in new sentences. If you're not sure what A1 or B2 means, see CEFR levels explained.

Every title below is free to read on SeoJae Story. Each one is retold in simplified English, with a Korean translation of every sentence, audio narration, and tap-any-word meanings. Short stories take 3–5 minutes. The novels are split into parts, so you can finish a whole book a few minutes at a time.

A1: first books (fairy tales and fables)

At A1 the sentences are short, the verbs are mostly simple past, and the plots are ones you probably already know in Korean. Knowing the plot is a real advantage: your attention goes to the English, not to following the story.

• The Tortoise and the Hare and The Boy Who Cried Wolf: Aesop's fables, each a few minutes long.
• Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel: the fairy tales everyone knows.
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Beatrix Potter's classic, gentle and funny.
• Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs: English folk tales full of the repetition that helps beginners.
• The Selfish Giant: Oscar Wilde's shortest fairy tale, and a good first taste of a famous author.

A2: your first whole novels

A2 adds longer sentences, more feelings and descriptions, and your first complete novels in short parts. These are the books to read when fairy tales start to feel too easy.

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: 7 parts. Strange and playful, with simple sentences.
• The Wind in the Willows: 6 parts. Mole, Rat and Toad on the river.
• Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden: they start at A2 and rise to B1, so the book grows with you.
• The Happy Prince, The Ugly Duckling and The Last Leaf: short stories Koreans often read first in translation.
• After Twenty Years: O. Henry's famous twist ending, in five minutes.

B1: classic stories and the first adult novels

At B1 you can follow irony, flashbacks and characters who say one thing and mean another. This is where the great short stories open up, along with novels written for adult readers.

• A Christmas Carol: 5 parts. Dickens at his most readable, with a clear, satisfying story.
• Sense and Sensibility: 4 parts. A gentle way into Jane Austen.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles: 4 parts. Sherlock Holmes on the moor.
• The Gift of the Magi and The Necklace: two of the most-taught short stories in the world.
• Daddy-Long-Legs: a novel told in letters, a favourite in Korea as 키다리 아저씨.
• Pride and Prejudice: 6 parts, B1 to B2. A good bridge into the next level.

B2: the big novels

B2 is where you read the books people quote: long arguments, unreliable narrators, nineteenth-century style. The retellings keep the famous lines, and the full Korean translation is always one tap away.

• Frankenstein: 21 parts, the whole novel from Walton's first letter to the ice.
• Dracula: 27 parts, told through diaries and letters.
• The Great Gatsby: 9 parts of Fitzgerald's Jazz Age.
• Jane Eyre, Treasure Island and Moby Dick: romance, pirates and the whale.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: 4 parts. Short, dark and easy to finish.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights and The Time Machine: single-sitting tastes of famous novels.

When to move up a level

Move up when you finish stories without the translation and the audio feels slow at normal speed. Don't wait until a level feels effortless; it never quite will. A good habit is to read new stories one level up, then reread old favourites one level down for speed. For a routine that makes it stick, see how to learn English by reading and how to read a whole novel in another language.