Free books by CEFR level, with word counts

Name: Free public-domain books by CEFR level with word counts
Creator: The Readlang Mobile team
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

117 public-domain books in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian, sorted from A1 to C2. Every title links to a free copy at Project Gutenberg or Standard Ebooks. For each book we counted the words and the different words in the text and estimated how many hours it takes to read.

By the Readlang Mobile team (an independent app, not affiliated with readlang.com). Updated 28 September 2026.

How to use the table:

Find your language and your level, then look one level below it as well. A book that feels slightly easy is the one you will finish.
Within a level, books are sorted from shortest to longest. For a first book, pick something under about 30,000 words: that is a few evenings, not a few months.
Before you commit, open the free copy and do the one-page test. Our levels are an editor’s judgement, and yours is the one that counts.

Number of books in the table, by language and CEFR level. Select a number to jump to those books.
Language	A1	A2	B1	B2	C1	C2	All
English	2	4	13	14	4	0	37
Spanish	0	2	5	6	5	2	20
French	0	2	5	6	5	2	20
German	0	3	5	5	5	2	20
Italian	0	2	5	6	5	2	20
All languages	2	13	33	37	24	8	117

English 37 books

English books sorted by CEFR level, shortest first within each level. Reading time is the range between 200 and 100 words per minute.
Book	Form	Level	Words	Different words	Reading time
Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandLewis Carroll	children’s novel	A1	26,775	2,634	2–4.5 h
Grimms’ Fairy TalesJacob and Wilhelm Grimm	fairy tales, translation	A1	101,611	4,854	8.5–17 h
Short Science FictionIsaac Asimov	short stories	A2	23,196	3,844	2–4 h
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeRobert Louis Stevenson	novella	A2	25,785	3,973	2–4.5 h
Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young UniversityCharles K. Field	short stories	A2	54,488	6,746	4.5–9 h
Short StoriesFyodor Dostoevsky	short stories, translation	A2	81,223	6,905	7–14 h
Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare	play in verse	B1	26,138	3,749	2–4.5 h
The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli	non-fiction, translation	B1	36,421	4,222	3–6 h
The End of the WorldGeoffrey Dennis	non-fiction	B1	39,220	7,226	3.5–6.5 h
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald	novel	B1	48,659	5,940	4–8 h
The Art of WarSun Tzu	non-fiction, translation	B1	54,454	6,492	4.5–9 h
FrankensteinMary Shelley	novel	B1	78,010	7,282	6.5–13 h
The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde	novel	B1	79,464	6,933	6.5–13 h
The Case-Book of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle	short stories	B1	83,631	7,434	7–14 h
My Life and WorkHenry Ford	memoir	B1	93,814	6,773	8–16 h
The Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle	short stories	B1	95,934	7,576	8–16 h
The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle	short stories	B1	104,993	7,987	8.5–17 h
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen	novel	B1	122,164	6,407	10–20 h
DraculaBram Stoker	novel	B1	161,387	9,437	13–27 h
The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels	non-fiction, translation	B2	13,680	2,555	1–2.5 h
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius	philosophy, translation	B2	49,641	4,569	4–8.5 h
Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche	philosophy, translation	B2	63,710	7,818	5.5–11 h
The King in YellowRobert W. Chambers	short stories	B2	72,499	8,101	6–12 h
How It WorksArchibald Williams	non-fiction	B2	74,338	5,730	6–12 h
The Psychology of ManagementLillian Moller Gilbreth	non-fiction	B2	84,315	5,142	7–14 h
Michael Faraday, His Life and WorkSilvanus P. Thompson	biography	B2	88,927	8,124	7.5–15 h
Philosophical WorksRené Descartes	philosophy, translation	B2	96,801	5,326	8–16 h
Woman in ScienceJ. A. Zahm	non-fiction	B2	146,277	14,387	12–24 h
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky	novel, translation	B2	204,644	9,587	17–34 h
The Notebooks of Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci	notebooks, translation	B2	244,475	15,717	20–41 h
The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith	non-fiction	B2	427,445	11,930	36–71 h
The Count of Monte CristoAlexandre Dumas	novel, translation	B2	463,374	16,272	39–77 h
DialoguesPlato	philosophy, translation	B2	1,206,575	21,213	101–201 h
Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812Napoleon Bonaparte	letters, translation	C1	91,618	9,238	7.5–15 h
The Story of My Experiments with TruthMahatma Gandhi	autobiography, translation	C1	173,864	10,830	14–29 h
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in ItalyJacob Burckhardt	history, translation	C1	211,395	18,566	18–35 h
The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)Babur	memoir, translation	C1	416,383	22,617	35–69 h

Spanish 20 books

Spanish books sorted by CEFR level, shortest first within each level. Reading time is the range between 200 and 100 words per minute.
Book	Form	Level	Words	Different words	Reading time
Fábulas literariasTomás de Iriarte	fables in verse	A2	14,714	3,959	1–2.5 h
Lecturas fáciles con ejerciciosLawrence A. Wilkins	reader for learners	A2	61,857	11,961	5–10 h
Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerteHoracio Quiroga	short stories	B1	49,907	8,186	4–8.5 h
Pepita JiménezJuan Valera	novel	B1	56,657	9,438	4.5–9.5 h
Cuentos de amorEmilia Pardo Bazán	short stories	B1	64,095	12,491	5.5–11 h
Dafnis y Cloe; Leyendas del antiguo OrienteJuan Valera	novel and legends	B1	77,281	12,569	6.5–13 h
Doña PerfectaBenito Pérez Galdós	novel	B1	113,704	20,845	9.5–19 h
Abel Sánchez: Una historia de pasiónMiguel de Unamuno	novel	B2	29,562	4,680	2.5–5 h
El estudiante de SalamancaJosé de Espronceda	narrative poem	B2	48,386	10,997	4–8 h
Niebla (Nivola)Miguel de Unamuno	novel	B2	57,384	7,575	5–9.5 h
El árbol de la cienciaPío Baroja	novel	B2	63,334	9,074	5.5–11 h
Los pazos de UlloaEmilia Pardo Bazán	novel	B2	83,819	15,030	7–14 h
Mare nostrumVicente Blasco Ibáñez	novel	B2	144,898	17,514	12–24 h
Romancero gitanoFederico García Lorca	poetry	C1	5,332	1,743	under 1–1 h
Libro de poemasFederico García Lorca	poetry	C1	15,045	3,408	1.5–2.5 h
Del sentimiento trágico de la vidaMiguel de Unamuno	philosophy	C1	100,338	11,511	8.5–17 h
Facundo: Civilización y barbarieDomingo Faustino Sarmiento	non-fiction	C1	101,153	13,730	8.5–17 h
Novelas ejemplaresMiguel de Cervantes	novellas	C1	188,535	15,795	16–31 h
Historia de la vida del BuscónFrancisco de Quevedo	novel	C2	42,981	7,172	3.5–7 h
Don Quijote de la ManchaMiguel de Cervantes	novel	C2	383,633	22,943	32–64 h

French 20 books

French books sorted by CEFR level, shortest first within each level. Reading time is the range between 200 and 100 words per minute.
Book	Form	Level	Words	Different words	Reading time
Riquet à la HouppeCharles Perrault	fairy tale	A2	2,196	617	under 1–under 1 h
Fables de La Fontaine, Tome premierJean de La Fontaine	fables in verse	A2	6,910	1,962	under 1–1 h
Candide, ou l’optimismeVoltaire	novella	B1	34,450	5,485	3–5.5 h
Boule de SuifGuy de Maupassant	short stories	B1	36,423	6,800	3–6 h
Le HorlaGuy de Maupassant	short stories	B1	41,691	6,519	3.5–7 h
Voyage au centre de la TerreJules Verne	novel	B1	67,960	9,468	5.5–11 h
Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts joursJules Verne	novel	B1	68,581	8,791	5.5–11 h
Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaireJean-Jacques Rousseau	essays	B2	41,944	5,870	3.5–7 h
Lettres de mon moulinAlphonse Daudet	short stories	B2	49,509	7,997	4–8.5 h
Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleurMaurice Leblanc	short stories	B2	55,408	8,135	4.5–9 h
Le Grand MeaulnesAlain-Fournier	novel	B2	64,901	7,666	5.5–11 h
Le Fantôme de l’OpéraGaston Leroux	novel	B2	102,569	9,724	8.5–17 h
Les misérables, Tome I: FantineVictor Hugo	novel	B2	111,879	11,993	9.5–19 h
Les Fleurs du MalCharles Baudelaire	poetry	C1	24,839	5,835	2–4 h
Madame BovaryGustave Flaubert	novel	C1	112,892	13,138	9.5–19 h
GerminalÉmile Zola	novel	C1	166,686	13,765	14–28 h
Le Rouge et le NoirStendhal	novel	C1	175,589	12,211	15–29 h
Notre-Dame de ParisVictor Hugo	novel	C1	175,812	16,676	15–29 h
Une saison en enferArthur Rimbaud	prose poetry	C2	7,111	2,243	under 1–1 h
Du côté de chez SwannMarcel Proust	novel	C2	168,956	15,208	14–28 h

German 20 books

German books sorted by CEFR level, shortest first within each level. Reading time is the range between 200 and 100 words per minute.
Book	Form	Level	Words	Different words	Reading time
Der StruwwelpeterHeinrich Hoffmann	children’s verse	A2	2,988	1,115	under 1–under 1 h
ImmenseeTheodor Storm	novella	A2	9,744	2,463	1–1.5 h
Deutsche MärchenJacob and Wilhelm Grimm	fairy tales	A2	88,762	8,882	7.5–15 h
Das UrteilFranz Kafka	short story	B1	4,060	1,293	under 1–under 1 h
In der StrafkolonieFranz Kafka	short story	B1	10,321	2,338	1–1.5 h
Die VerwandlungFranz Kafka	novella	B1	19,175	3,754	1.5–3 h
Aus dem Leben eines TaugenichtsJoseph von Eichendorff	novella	B1	31,367	5,046	2.5–5 h
Der SchimmelreiterTheodor Storm	novella	B1	38,362	6,221	3–6.5 h
Die Leiden des jungen WertherJohann Wolfgang von Goethe	novel in letters	B2	17,730	4,038	1.5–3 h
SiddharthaHermann Hesse	novel	B2	34,470	5,047	3–5.5 h
DemianHermann Hesse	novel	B2	47,366	7,045	4–8 h
Unterm RadHermann Hesse	novel	B2	49,238	9,716	4–8 h
BuddenbrooksThomas Mann	novel	B2	228,586	24,987	19–38 h
Faust: Der Tragödie erster TeilJohann Wolfgang von Goethe	play in verse	C1	30,693	6,308	2.5–5 h
Jenseits von Gut und BöseFriedrich Nietzsche	philosophy	C1	57,811	9,896	5–9.5 h
Die WahlverwandtschaftenJohann Wolfgang von Goethe	novel	C1	79,204	10,899	6.5–13 h
Also sprach ZarathustraFriedrich Nietzsche	philosophy	C1	84,321	9,449	7–14 h
Der UntertanHeinrich Mann	novel	C1	130,662	15,552	11–22 h
Die Geburt der TragödieFriedrich Nietzsche	philosophy	C2	41,816	8,105	3.5–7 h
Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter TeilJohann Wolfgang von Goethe	play in verse	C2	45,471	10,212	4–7.5 h

Italian 20 books

Italian books sorted by CEFR level, shortest first within each level. Reading time is the range between 200 and 100 words per minute.
Book	Form	Level	Words	Different words	Reading time
Le avventure di PinocchioCarlo Collodi	children’s novel	A2	41,398	5,998	3.5–7 h
First Italian ReadingsVarious	reader for learners	A2	44,738	12,136	3.5–7.5 h
Vecchie storie d’amoreAdolfo Albertazzi	short stories	B1	27,951	6,180	2.5–4.5 h
Fedele ed altri raccontiAntonio Fogazzaro	short stories	B1	34,707	6,920	3–6 h
I Robinson italianiEmilio Salgari	novel	B1	67,116	9,732	5.5–11 h
Ricordi d’infanzia e di scuolaEdmondo De Amicis	memoir	B1	96,751	15,044	8–16 h
La favorita del MahdiEmilio Salgari	novel	B1	113,371	12,852	9.5–19 h
Sei personaggi in cerca d’autoreLuigi Pirandello	play	B2	19,011	3,378	1.5–3 h
L’infedeleMatilde Serao	novel	B2	24,283	5,224	2–4 h
Dopo il divorzioGrazia Deledda	novel	B2	56,909	8,716	4.5–9.5 h
Documenti UmaniFederico De Roberto	short stories	B2	58,657	10,246	5–10 h
Il mistero del poetaAntonio Fogazzaro	novel	B2	60,698	8,752	5–10 h
L’InnocenteGabriele D’Annunzio	novel	B2	77,999	11,228	6.5–13 h
Enrico IVLuigi Pirandello	play	C1	18,998	3,467	1.5–3 h
I CantiGiacomo Leopardi	poetry	C1	25,789	6,145	2–4.5 h
La mandragola · La Clizia · BelfagorNiccolò Machiavelli	plays and a novella	C1	29,244	4,815	2.5–5 h
L’umorismoLuigi Pirandello	essay	C1	51,514	9,013	4.5–8.5 h
I promessi sposiAlessandro Manzoni	novel	C1	230,062	21,895	19–38 h
La Divina CommediaDante Alighieri	epic poem	C2	97,718	12,889	8–16 h
Orlando FuriosoLudovico Ariosto	epic poem	C2	266,145	19,053	22–44 h

What the columns mean

Book: The title links to the edition we measured: its page at Project Gutenberg or Standard Ebooks, where you can download it free as an EPUB or Kindle file. Both sites publish books that are in the public domain in the United States. Copyright rules differ by country, so check yours before you download.
Form: Novel, short stories, play, poetry and so on. Plays and verse are usually harder than their length suggests. In the English table, “translation” means the book was written in another language and this is an English translation.
Level: The CEFR level our team gave the book when it was added to our library, from A1, the first level, to C2, the highest. It is a judgement about the language of the whole book, not the result of a test, and it can be wrong for you. How the levels were set is explained on the About page.
Words: Running words in the text of the book, without the title page, table of contents and licence. A word is any unbroken run of letters, so “don’t” is one word and “well-known” is two.
Different words: How many different word forms appear, ignoring capital letters. “Walk”, “walks” and “walked” count as three, and names of people and places count too. The number grows with the length of a book, so compare books of similar length.
Reading time: Hours at 200 words per minute (the lower number) and at 100 words per minute (the higher number). Where these speeds come from, and how to measure your own, is on How long does it take to read a book.

How long the books are at each level

Level and length are not linked. Short books exist at every level, and so do very long ones: Don Quijote at C2 has over 380,000 words, while Kafka’s Das Urteil at B1 has about 4,000. Of the 117 books, 25 have fewer than 30,000 words and 48 have fewer than 50,000.

Length of the books in our table by CEFR level, all five languages together.
Level	Books	Median words	Shortest–longest	Median different words
A1	2	64,193	26,775–101,611	3,744
A2	13	25,785	2,196–88,762	3,973
B1	33	56,657	4,060–161,387	6,933
B2	37	63,710	13,680–1,206,575	8,135
C1	24	95,978	5,332–416,383	10,864
C2	8	71,594	7,111–383,633	11,550

The medians for A1 and C2 rest on 2 and 8 books, so read them as examples rather than typical values.

Before you choose: four things the numbers do not show

Age of the language. Public-domain books are old. Don Quijote was published in 1605 and 1615, La Divina Commedia was written in the early fourteenth century, and even the “easy” nineteenth-century novels use words and spellings that modern textbooks do not teach.
Verse and drama. 17 of the books are poetry, plays or fables in verse. Word order in verse is unusual, and a play gives you almost no description to guess from.
Translations into English. 16 of the English books are translations, from Russian, French, German, Greek and other languages. The English is real English, but the names, places and culture come from the original.
Books for learners. Lecturas fáciles con ejercicios and First Italian Readings were written as school readers for English-speaking students, in 1916 and 1897. Their notes and English vocabulary lists make up a large part of the text and are included in our counts, so the real reading part is shorter than the table shows.

Download the data

The full table is available as a CSV file: books-by-level.csv (title, author, language, level, form, words, different words and a link to the free edition). You may reuse it under the CC BY 4.0 licence with a link to this page. If you find a wrong level or a wrong count, write to [email protected].

Next: Is this book right for my level?