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What to read in Esperanto: books for every level
Which Esperanto books to read first, which next, and which ones you can legally read for free online.
For a first book, pick one written for learners: Claude Piron's Gerda malaperis! (1983), Edmond Privat's Karlo (1909) or Piron's short story Dankon, amiko! (1990). After that come longer easy novels, then original novels, and finally poetry and translated classics. Below are 18 books in that order. For each you will find the first year, whether it was written in Esperanto or translated, who it suits, and whether a legal free text exists.
How to use this list
Start once you have finished the first lessons of a course, for example our free 12-lesson course. The levels are our own rough guide, based on length, vocabulary and what the authors say about their books. They are not exam grades.
- Year is the first edition of the book in Esperanto. For translations the year of the original is given in brackets.
- Free means the text is legally available at no cost: it is in the public domain, or the author or rightsholder has put it online. The list links to no shops. Print copies are sold by publishers and by national Esperanto associations.
- A graded reader (a book that adds new words step by step) is better than a hard book you abandon on page ten. If you must stop at every line, step down one level.
For a taste before you commit, see seven short sample texts with translations. For the history behind these names, read Esperanto literature.
Level 1: first weeks and months
| Book | Author and year | Original or translation | Who it suits and why | Free text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karlo | Edmond Privat, 1909 | Written in Esperanto | Learners with a few lessons behind them. Twenty short chapters follow a boy from birth to marriage in everyday language, each with questions about the text. | Yes: Project Gutenberg (see the note on copyright below) |
| Dankon, amiko! | Claude Piron, 1990 | Written in Esperanto | Your first complete story. A young traveller wakes up to find his money gone, and a letter explains why. | Yes: the author's site |
| Gerda malaperis! | Claude Piron, 1983 | Written in Esperanto | Learners who want a detective story that starts with very simple dialogue and adds vocabulary and grammar chapter by chapter. Word lists exist in several languages. The companion volume Lasu min paroli plu (1984) repeats the same grammar in new stories. | No legal free text found |
Gerda malaperis! is regularly used in teaching, which is why many beginner guides mention it. If you cannot find a print copy, the two free books above do a similar job.
Level 2: after your first course
| Book | Author and year | Original or translation | Who it suits and why | Free text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vere aŭ fantazie | Claude Piron, 1989 | Written in Esperanto | A second graded reader. True and invented stories from around the world, arranged so that vocabulary grows gradually. In the preface Piron says it leads towards the thousand most-used word parts. | Yes: the author's site |
| Ili kaptis Elzan! | Johán Valano (a pen name of Claude Piron), 1985 | Written in Esperanto | A thriller in easy Esperanto. A short novel that builds reading stamina. | Yes: the author's site |
| Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo | Tibor Sekelj, 1979 | Written in Esperanto | A children's adventure about a twelve-year-old boy of the Karajá people who helps stranded travellers in the Brazilian jungle. A simple plot with the vocabulary of nature and river travel. | No legal free text found |
| La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando | E. L. Kearney, 1910 (Lewis Carroll, 1865) | Translation | Anyone who knows the story. A plot you already know is easy to follow while your vocabulary is small. This is Kearney's version; another translation exists. | Yes: Project Gutenberg |
| Fundamenta Krestomatio | L. L. Zamenhof (compiler), 1903 | Mixed: original pieces and translations | Readers curious about the language of the first generation. It opens with graded exercises that begin with the simplest sentences, then offers fables, anecdotes, articles and poems, including the anthem La Espero. | Yes: Project Gutenberg |
| Vivo de Zamenhof | Edmond Privat, 1920 | Written in Esperanto | Anyone who wants the story of the language from the inside. Privat is regarded as Zamenhof's first biographer; an English translation by Ralph Eliott appeared in 1931. | Yes: Project Gutenberg (see the note on copyright below) |
Kumeŭaŭa appeared as a book in Esperanto in 1979 (Antwerp and La Laguna, Stafeto), but Vikipedio lists translations from 1957 onward, so the story was circulating earlier. The 1979 date is the first Esperanto edition.
Level 3: your first novels
| Book | Author and year | Original or translation | Who it suits and why | Free text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kredu min, sinjorino! | Cezaro Rossetti, 1950 | Written in Esperanto | Readers ready for an adult novel. An autobiographical story of a travelling salesman and hawker. It is on William Auld's Baza legolisto (see below). | Yes: Faded Page (public domain in Canada) |
| La ŝtona urbo | Anna Löwenstein, 1999 | Written in Esperanto (the author also published an English version) | Fans of historical fiction. A Celtic slave woman is taken to ancient Rome; the plot carries you through a long text. | No legal free text found |
| Vojaĝo al Kazohinio | Sándor Szathmári, Hungarian edition 1941, Esperanto edition 1958 | Written by the author in both languages | Readers who like satire. A shipwrecked traveller meets two very different societies, in the manner of Gulliver's Travels. Expect abstract vocabulary. | No legal free text found |
| La Hobito | Christopher Gledhill (prose) and William Auld (verse), 2000 (J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937) | Translation | Fantasy readers who know the story. The verse passages are harder than the prose, so keep a dictionary open. Auld also translated The Lord of the Rings (1995–97). | No |
Level 4: original literature and translated classics
| Book | Author and year | Original or translation | Who it suits and why | Free text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metropoliteno | Vladimir Varankin, 1933 | Written in Esperanto | Readers of historical fiction who can separate a story from its politics. A novel of Berlin and Moscow in the late 1920s, written from a committed communist viewpoint. The author was executed in 1938 and cleared of the charges in 1957. | Yes: Vikifontaro (Esperanto Wikisource) |
| Kiel akvo de l' rivero | Raymond Schwartz, 1962 or 1963 | Written in Esperanto | Confident readers. A long novel about a young Frenchman who is in Berlin in 1913, flees when war breaks out in 1914, and lives through both world wars. | No legal free text found |
| Hamleto | L. L. Zamenhof, 1894 (Shakespeare, around 1600) | Translation | Readers who know the play. Zamenhof's version appeared in 1894, only seven years after the language itself. | Yes: Project Gutenberg |
| Marta | L. L. Zamenhof, 1910 (Eliza Orzeszkowa, 1873) | Translation | Readers who like nineteenth-century social novels. Zamenhof translated this Polish novel about a widow who cannot find work that pays enough to live on. | Yes: Project Gutenberg |
| Mondo kaj koro | Kálmán Kalocsay, 1921 | Written in Esperanto (poems) | Readers ready for poetry. The first original collection of the poet who later led the Budapest school; a short book. | Yes: Project Gutenberg (see the note on copyright below) |
Sources give both 1962 and 1963 as the year of the first edition of Kiel akvo de l' rivero. Of the novels in levels 3 and 4, four (Kredu min, sinjorino!, Vojaĝo al Kazohinio, Metropoliteno and Kiel akvo de l' rivero) also appear on the Baza legolisto, the basic reading list of original literature that William Auld compiled in 1988 and updated in 1997. In 2023 other editors added more titles to it.
Which of these books are free to read legally?
Twelve of the 18 have a legal free text. The reasons differ, and copyright rules differ by country, so treat this as general information and not legal advice.
| Group | Books | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Public domain almost everywhere | Hamleto, Marta, Fundamenta Krestomatio, La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando, Metropoliteno | Zamenhof died in 1917, Kearney in 1913 and Varankin in 1938, more than 70 years ago. |
| Public domain in the United States and some other countries | Karlo, Vivo de Zamenhof, Mondo kaj koro | Project Gutenberg follows US law. In countries that protect books for 70 years after the author's death, Privat's books stay protected until the end of 2032 and Kalocsay's until the end of 2046. |
| Public domain in Canada | Kredu min, sinjorino! | Rossetti died in 1950; the Canadian site Faded Page hosts it. Countries with a 70-year term also count it as out of copyright since 2021. |
| Free with the author's permission | Dankon, amiko!, Vere aŭ fantazie, Ili kaptis Elzan! | Piron's official website, kept up by his family, offers them for reading. It grants no licence for copying; the page of Ili kaptis Elzan! states that the copyright stays with the author and the publisher. |
How to read your first book
Read a page without stopping, then go back and look up only the words that blocked the meaning. A dictionary shows what an unknown word means and how it is built from roots and endings. Pick a book where you already know most of the words. Texts that you can follow on the first pass teach more than ones you decode word by word. More ideas for a study plan are in how to learn Esperanto, and further free courses, readers and audio are collected in free resources.
Common questions
What is a good first book to read in Esperanto?
Choose a book written for learners. Gerda malaperis! (1983) is widely used in teaching, Karlo (1909) is free, and Dankon, amiko! (1990) is a short story you can read in one sitting. All three use everyday language and short sentences.
Can I read Esperanto books for free legally?
Yes. Zamenhof's translations of Hamleto and Marta, the anthology Fundamenta Krestomatio, Kearney's Alicio and Varankin's Metropoliteno are in the public domain. Piron's Dankon, amiko!, Vere aŭ fantazie and Ili kaptis Elzan! are offered by his family's site. Check the rules in your country for books by authors who died after 1950.
Which novel should I read after a graded reader?
Kredu min, sinjorino! (1950) is a good next step if you want an adult story, and Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo (1979) if you want a children's adventure. Both are original Esperanto books.
Are famous books translated into Esperanto?
Yes. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland appeared in 1910, Hamlet in 1894 and The Hobbit in 2000, among many others. If you already know the plot of a translated book, you can follow it with a smaller vocabulary.
Should I read translations or books written in Esperanto?
Both are useful. Translations of books you know are easy to follow. Original books show what Esperanto writers do with the language themselves; William Auld's Baza legolisto lists only original works.
Sources
- Vikipedio, Gerda malaperis!, Karlo (legolibro), Vivo de Zamenhof, Vere aŭ fantazie, Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo, Fundamenta Krestomatio, Marta (romano), Mondo kaj Koro, Kredu min, Sinjorino!, La ŝtona urbo, Vojaĝo al Kazohinio, Metropoliteno (romano), Kiel akvo de l' rivero, La Hobito, La aventuroj de Alico en Mirlando, Elfric Leofwin Kearney, Claude Piron, Baza legolisto
- Wikipedia, Gerda malaperis!, Edmond Privat, Tibor Sekelj, L. L. Zamenhof, Kálmán Kalocsay, Cezaro Rossetti, Kredu min, sinjorino!, Anna Löwenstein, Kazohinia, Vladimir Varankin, Raymond Schwartz, Claude Piron, Translations of The Hobbit, Translations of The Lord of the Rings, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Wikipedia (Polish), Marta (powieść) and Wikipédia (French), Fundamenta Krestomatio
- Open Library catalogue records: Kumeuaua, Gerda Malaperis!, Marta, Kredu min, sinjorino!, Metropoliteno
- Project Gutenberg, Esperanto books: Karlo, Fundamenta Krestomatio, Alicio, Vivo de Zamenhof, Hamleto, Marta, Mondo kaj koro
- Faded Page, Kredu Min, Sinjorino! and Vikifontaro, Metropoliteno (1933 scan)
- Claude Piron, official website: books and bibliography
- Wikipedia, List of countries' copyright length
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