The great works
Old books, in their own words.
Out of copyright, so every note is written once and given away.
Dive deeper into
the great works.
For the book you never finished.
For the paper you did not.
- il·lu·mine /ɪˈluːmɪn/ verb
- 1 to light up.
- 2 to make clear; to enlighten.
- 3 to adorn a manuscript with gold and colour.
- From Latin illūmināre, from lūmen, light.
A little way into HamletI / i
Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
Tap an underlined passage to try it
BARNARDO
FRANCISCO
In the margin
A little help, right here.
Tap a passage above. Its explanation is already written and waiting.
The original words stay in view.
We'll let you know when Act I opens.
What you can read
Three kinds of hard reading.
One way in.
Tap the line that stopped you. The note is already written, and checked before you got there.
Papers
Is this shown, or merely asserted?
Read on the paper's own pages. Every table, every term, in plain words.
Study Soon
Go deeper, one passage a day.
- Reading plansSoon
- Your kept passagesSoon
For readers who want more than the next line.
FAQ
Is this AI?
Yes. AI writes the explanations in advance, and a second model checks them. The Hamlet companion takes Shakespeare’s perspective and speaks modern English. It is an imagined voice, not Shakespeare’s own commentary.
You choose when to ask. The original text stays intact.
Will it tell me what happens next?
The explanations are meant to stay with what you have read. We check for spoilers and leave flagged answers out of this preview. The checks can miss things, so we cannot promise a spoiler-free reading.
Why is the answer there so quickly?
The text is fixed, so the explanations can be written and checked beforehand. In this demo, tapping a passage opens an answer already on the page. Nothing is generated while you wait.
What can I read right now?
This web preview opens Hamlet, with explanations available for Act I. You can also read the research paper on its own pages, where every one of its 98 passages has a checked note. More books will follow.
The reader has paper, night and e-ink themes. The native app is still a scaffold, not a released app.
Will it help me finish?
That is what we want to find out. We do not yet have evidence that Illumine helps people finish a book. Our first test is whether a new reader gets to the end of Act I.