Vietnamese · English · C1–C2
Advanced Vietnamese stories, with the English alongside (C1–C2)
Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne, Melville and Twain in Vietnamese: dense, stylish prose, with the English original there for the sentences worth a second look.
13 free advanced stories in Vietnamese
Each one opens in your browser with no account, the Vietnamese and the English side by side, paragraph by paragraph, shortest first. Every story is also a free Vietnamese–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).
Open the advanced Vietnamese–English stories in the library, where you can search them and switch to another level or pair.
- C1
Bức chân dung hình bầu dục
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe · Vietnamese · 10 min
- C2
Chú ếch nhảy trứ danh của hạt Calaveras
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Mark Twain · Vietnamese · 15 min
- C1
Thùng rượu Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe · Vietnamese · 15 min
- C1
Trái tim mách bảo
The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe · Vietnamese · 15 min
- C1
Mặt nạ Thần Chết Đỏ
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe · Vietnamese · 20 min
- C1
Tobermory
Saki · Vietnamese · 20 min
- C1
Người đẹp ngủ trong rừng
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Charles Perrault · Vietnamese · 25 min
- C1
Biến cố ở cầu Owl Creek
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Ambrose Bierce · Vietnamese · 30 min
- C1
Thí nghiệm của Bác sĩ Heidegger
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Nathaniel Hawthorne · Vietnamese · 30 min
- C1
Con mèo đen
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe · Vietnamese · 30 min
- C1
Bức hoàng hoa
The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman · Vietnamese · 50 min
- C1
Truyền thuyết thung lũng Sleepy Hollow
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving · Vietnamese · 1 h 30 min
- C2
Bartleby, Người chép đơn
Bartleby the Scrivener
Herman Melville · Vietnamese · 2 h
What advanced Vietnamese stories are like
Advanced stories are dense on purpose: Poe’s narrators circle their own guilt, Bierce bends time, Melville’s Bartleby prefers not to. The Vietnamese carries that style with long sentences, rare words and a literary register.
At this level you rarely need the English for the plot. It is there for the phrases that are hard to pin down, and for comparing how the same effect is achieved in two languages.
How to read Vietnamese at C1–C2
Read the Vietnamese as literature
Read at your normal pace and let unfamiliar words go when the meaning is clear. Stop only where the style or a turn of phrase interests you.
Use the English for nuance
When a word could mean two things, the English shows which one the story needs. That is where advanced readers still learn the most.
Read aloud
Literary Vietnamese has rhythm. Reading a paragraph aloud, then checking its English, trains your ear as well as your eye.
More on the method in how to read a parallel text.