Charles Raymond Macauley, 1904 (public domain)
Free English reading, level B1-B2
Read Jekyll and Hyde in Stevenson's original English
A gothic classic short enough to actually finish, in prose most learners only ever meet in translation.
Learn English with this book for freeJekyll and Hyde is short enough to realistically finish, but Stevenson's Victorian prose still trips learners up with long, formal sentences and words a modern course skips entirely. Lira keeps the text exactly as Stevenson wrote it, but every unfamiliar word is one tap away from a translation, and every word you look up gets scheduled for review so the vocabulary actually stays with you after the last page.
Key vocabulary from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
A preview of the words you'll run into early on, with pronunciation. Every one of them, and every other word you tap while reading, gets saved to your review deck automatically.
countenance
facial expression, appearance
discourse
speech, conversation
lovable
endearing
lawyer
lawyer
sinister
sinister
dreary
gloomy, dull
What actually happens while you read
One tap to translate
Click any unfamiliar word for its contextual translation, right inside the page. No dictionary tab, no losing your place in the story.
Every word saved with its sentence
The word you looked up keeps the exact sentence you found it in, not an isolated flashcard, so the meaning stays anchored to real context.
FSRS brings it back before you forget
Spaced repetition schedules each word's next review right before you'd naturally lose it, so vocabulary from this book actually stays with you.
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, and yet somehow lovable.
TRANSLATION
rough, weathered
CONTEXT
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.
Start reading free →The science
Recognizing a word isn't the same as remembering it
According to Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis, a language is acquired durably through exposure to content you mostly already understand, not through isolated word lists. Reading a real book supplies exactly that kind of exposure. Spaced repetition on top of it is what turns a word you translated once into one you actually remember weeks later.
Learning approach
Retention with Lira
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