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Du côté de chez Swann
Marcel Proust, 1913
Openings of public-domain classics, with our own English renderings. Open a sample to see real DuoText output.
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400 stories in 19 languages, public-domain classics and originals written for the library, with a translation beside every paragraph. Sorted by level, from beginner stories to Poe. Open one in your browser; no account needed.
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Made for reading every day
A free account remembers where you are and helps you come back tomorrow.
A daily goal and streaks
Set a few minutes a day and keep your streak going. Freezes cover the days life gets in the way.
Listen while you read
Many stories are narrated, so you can follow the text while you hear it. Some narrations come with a plan.
A series written for you
Pick a level, a language and what you like to read about, and new episodes are written for you, one at a time. Each episode uses pages, like your own books.
Your words, kept
The words you look up stay in your account, 100 new word meanings a month for free.
Your own books
From any file to a parallel text
Three steps, and the first look is free: every file starts with a preview of its opening before you spend a single page.
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Bring a book or document
EPUB, Word and text-based PDF work best. Plain text and HTML files work too, or paste text straight in.
moby-dick.epub1.3 MBlease.pdf240 KBEPUBPDFTXTHTMLup to 50 MB - 2
Pick your language
The original can be in any language, and you can translate it into any of 68. Neither side has to be English, and the original's language is detected for you.
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Read it your way
Read in the browser, or download it: PDF to print or keep, EPUB for Kobo and Apple Books, AZW3 or MOBI for Kindle.
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Who it's for
For anyone who reads in two languages
A translation replaces the original. A parallel edition keeps both, so you choose how much of each you need.
Reading in your second language
Living abroad, studying in another language, or just more comfortable in your own? The lease, the letter from the tax office, the novel on your nightstand: read the original with a safety net beside it.
Learning a language
Read stories you'd pick anyway, in the language you're learning. When a line stops you, the meaning is a glance away.
Bilingual families
Share one text across two languages, so parents and kids, or grandparents and grandkids, can read the same story, or the same school letter, together.
Anyone who needs the original
Keep the exact wording in front of you, whether it's an author's prose, a paper you'll cite or a clause you'll sign, while a translation carries you through.
Word meanings
Not a dictionary entry. The meaning in this sentence.
Both the translation and the word lookup are made by AI that reads the whole passage, so it understands context, idioms and nuance, which a word-for-word translator or a dictionary lookup can’t. Click any word, or press and hold it on a phone.
Le vieux a cassé sa pipe l’hiver dernier.
pipe n.
1. pipe (for smoking) 2. tube, conduit …
Le vieux a cassé sa pipe l’hiver dernier.
casser sa pipe idiom
to die
Literally “to break one’s pipe”: to die.
- The sense used here
- A word has many meanings. You get the one this sentence uses, not a list to choose from.
- Idioms as one piece
- Pick a word of an idiom, a phrasal verb or a separable verb like German “fing … an”, and the whole unit is explained, not one word of it.
- Tone and false friends
- Slang, archaic or formal register, and words that look like your language but aren’t, are pointed out when they matter.
- Your language or the book’s
- Get a short translation, or a simple definition in the book’s own language, like a learner’s dictionary.
Translation quality
Careful with the words, honest about the limits
Translations that follow the story, not just the words.
- Translated in context
- Each paragraph is translated as a whole, not word by word, so pronouns, tenses and tone carry from one sentence to the next.
- More than a translation engine
- Made by AI that reads the passage the way a person does, not a phrase-matching service like a classic online translator, so idioms and nuance survive.
- Made for stories
- Tuned for fiction: dialogue, narration and long sentences, not menus and manuals.
- Aligned, not side by side
- Pages are rebuilt paragraph by paragraph, not a translated page set next to the original page. Every paragraph stays paired with its own translation, so you never lose your place.
- Honest about the limits
- Puns, poetry and dialect can come out flatter than the original. It's a reading companion, not a certified translation.
Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire : « Je m’endors. »Word for word (illustration)
Sometimes, at hardly my candle extinguished, my eyes themselves closed so quickly that I not had not the time of me to say: “I me sleep.”
Aligned and natural
Sometimes, my candle barely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I had no time to tell myself: “I’m falling asleep.”
Want a bigger sample? Open any book in the free library: each one is translated the same way your own book will be. Then judge it on your own book: every upload gets a free preview, no card, and 50 free pages when you sign up.
68
languages to read in
Pick any of them as the translation language. The original’s language is detected automatically.
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