Reading list
Moral stories in English: 15 short stories with a lesson
The best moral stories are short, have one clear lesson and are told in words a child can follow. These fifteen are the classics: Aesop's fables, tales from India's Panchatantra, and a few longer ones by Tolstoy and Oscar Wilde.
15 stories, all free to read
Each is marked Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced for anyone reading in English to learn it, and they are in order from the easiest to read. Every one opens free in Doomreader, at the story itself.
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1. How Much Land Does a Man Need?
by Leo Tolstoy · from Short Fiction
A peasant is offered all the land he can walk round in a day. Tolstoy's parable about greed, and its last line.
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2. The Happy Prince
by Oscar Wilde · from Children’s Stories
A golden statue and a swallow give everything away to the poor of the city. Wilde's most loved story, and a sad one.
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3. The Hare and the Tortoise
by Aesop · from Fables
Slow and steady wins the race. The most famous fable there is, in about 150 words.
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4. The Selfish Giant
by Oscar Wilde · from Children’s Stories
A giant walls up his garden and winter never leaves it, until a small boy comes in. Oscar Wilde's gentlest fairy tale.
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5. The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf
by Aesop · from Fables
A boy cries "Wolf!" for fun, until the day it is true. The fable behind the saying.
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6. The Grasshopper and the Ants
by Aesop · from Fables
A grasshopper sings all summer and asks the ants for food in winter. Work today for tomorrow.
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7. Three Questions
by Leo Tolstoy · from Short Fiction
A king wants to know the right time, the right person and the right thing to do. Tolstoy's answer, in a few pages.
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8. The Lion-Makers
by Vishnu Sharma · from The Panchatantra
Four friends, three of them learned, bring a dead lion back to life. The one with common sense climbs a tree.
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9. The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs
by Aesop · from Fables
A man's goose lays a golden egg every day, and he wants them all at once. Greed loses everything.
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10. The Lion and the Mouse
by Aesop · from Fables
A lion spares a mouse, and the mouse later frees him from a net. No kindness is wasted.
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11. The Milkmaid and Her Pail
by Aesop · from Fables
A girl counts her chickens before they hatch, and spills the milk. The fable behind the saying.
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12. The Crow and the Pitcher
by Aesop · from Fables
A thirsty crow drops stones into a pitcher until the water rises. The story of the thirsty crow, as Aesop told it.
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13. The Loyal Mungoose
by Vishnu Sharma · from The Panchatantra
A mongoose kills a snake to save a baby, and the mother kills him in haste. Think before you act.
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14. The Fox and the Grapes
by Aesop · from Fables
A fox cannot reach the grapes and decides they are sour anyway. Where "sour grapes" comes from.
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15. The Talkative Tortoise
by Joseph Jacobs · from Indian Fairy Tales
A tortoise flies by holding a stick in his mouth, and cannot keep quiet. A Jataka tale from India.
Reading to learn English? Start with the Beginner reading path, whole books in order from the easiest.
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Read them free
Every book on this list is free in Doomreader: open one and it reads as short posts you scroll, with your place kept and its best pages a tap away. You can listen to any of them free too, read aloud by your device.