German books with English translation
Kafka, Theodor Storm and Oscar Wilde in German, each with an English translation one tap away, sentence by sentence. Read the opening of each one here, then the whole text free in Lexico, where every word can be tapped for its meaning.
Das Urteil
Franz Kafka · 1913 · ~4,000 words · level B2 · in English: The Judgment
A young merchant writes to a friend in Russia about his engagement, then takes the letter to his father. Kafka wrote the story in a single night.
Immensee
Theodor Storm · 1849 · ~9,500 words · level B2
An old man sits in the dusk and remembers Elisabeth, the girl he grew up with and lost. Theodor Storm’s short, quiet novella, a German school classic.
In der Strafkolonie
Franz Kafka · 1919 · ~10,500 words · level C1 · in English: In the Penal Colony
A traveller is invited to watch an execution by an elaborate machine that writes the sentence on the condemned man’s body. One of Kafka’s darkest stories.
Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde · 1890 · Preface and chapters 1–2, ~10,500 words · level B2–C1 · in English: The Picture of Dorian Gray
A young man stays beautiful while his portrait ages with every sin. Oscar Wilde’s only novel, in Richard Zoozmann’s German translation.
