italiano · English · C1–C2
Advanced Italian stories, with the English alongside (C1–C2)
Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne, Melville and Twain in Italian: dense, stylish prose, with the English original there for the sentences worth a second look.
11 free advanced stories in Italian
Each one opens in your browser with no account, the Italian and the English side by side, paragraph by paragraph, shortest first. Every story is also a free Italian–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).
IT
Il ritratto ovale
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
C1Edgar Allan Poe · Italian · 10 min
IT
Il cuore rivelatore
Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart
C1Edgar Allan Poe · Italian · 15 min
IT
La botte di Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
C1Edgar Allan Poe · Italian · 15 min
IT
La maschera della Morte Rossa
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
C1Edgar Allan Poe · Italian · 15 min
IT
La celebre rana salterina della contea di Calaveras
Mark Twain
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
C2Mark Twain · Italian · 15 min
IT
Tobermory
Saki
Tobermory
C1Saki · Italian · 20 min
IT
L’esperimento del dottor Heidegger
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
C1Nathaniel Hawthorne · Italian · 25 min
IT
Accadde al ponte di Owl Creek
Ambrose Bierce
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
C1Ambrose Bierce · Italian · 25 min
IT
La bella addormentata nel bosco
Charles Perrault
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
C1Charles Perrault · Italian · 25 min
IT
Il gatto nero
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
C1Edgar Allan Poe · Italian · 25 min
IT
La carta da parati gialla
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper
C1Charlotte Perkins Gilman · Italian · 40 min
What advanced Italian 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 Italian 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 Italian at C1–C2
Read the Italian 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 Italian 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.