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Timon of Athens

From Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit (1907), after William Shakespeare

This reader is drawn from E. Nesbit's 1907 retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens, first performed around 1606. The play tells the story of a wealthy Athenian whose reckless generosity leads to ruin, and whose friends abandon him the moment his fortune fails. Shakespeare explores the fragility of friendship built on wealth, the corrosive power of bitterness, and the danger of living in extremes. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Timon's story is a warning: gratitude and ingratitude, generosity and selfishness, trust and betrayal are woven together in every human community, and wisdom lies in seeing the world as it is—mixed—rather than swinging from blind trust to blind hatred.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 1033 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare

First published

1907

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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