Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte: reading level, length and free edition

Name: Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte
Author: Horacio Quiroga

Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte by Horacio Quiroga is a short stories in Spanish. Our team rates it B1. It runs to 49,907 words with 8,186 different word forms, about 4–8.5 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.

By the Readlang Mobile team (an independent app, not affiliated with readlang.com). Updated 31 October 2026.

Cover of Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte

Author: Horacio Quiroga
Language: Spanish
Level: B1
Form: short stories
Words: 49,907
Different word forms: 8,186
Forms for 95% / 98%: 5,691 / 7,188
Reading time: 4–8.5 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

Relatos inquietantes ambientados en la selva misionera, clásico del cuento hispanoamericano.

Is Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte, you need its 5,691 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 7,188.

A word form is any spelling that appears in the text, so “walk” and “walked” count twice, and names count too. These numbers are a guide to how much vocabulary the book asks for, not a test. The level itself was set by hand by our team. Before you commit, read one page of the free edition and count the words you do not know: the one-page test takes two minutes.

Which words should you know before you start?

These are the words that Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 36 Spanish books in our library; the number is how many times each appears. Names of people and places are left out. Learning a handful of them first makes the opening chapters easier.

míster 32
metros 29
mensú 26
vacas 23
alazán 23
malacara 23
sentí 22
delirio 22
peones 21
pozo 21
alambrado 21
terrier 21
rabioso 19
vigas 19
obraje 19

How does it begin?

Una estación de amor Los ojos sombríos El solitario La muerte de Isolda El infierno artificial La gallina degollada Los buques suicidantes El almohadón de pluma El perro rabioso A la deriva La insolación El alambre de púa Los Mensú Yaguaí Los pescadores de vigas La miel silvestre Nuestro primer cigarro La meningitis y su sombra

From the Project Gutenberg edition, which is in the public domain. If this paragraph already feels slow, try a book one level lower.

How long does it take to read?

Hours to read *Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte* (49,907 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
49,907	8.5 h	5.5 h	4 h	3.5 h

Learners reading a book at their level often manage 100 to 150 words per minute, and readers in their first language 200 to 250. Where these speeds come from, and a calculator for your own: How long does it take to read a book?

Where can you read it for free?

The free edition is Project Gutenberg eBook #13507. Project Gutenberg publishes books that are in the public domain in the United States, as EPUB, Kindle and plain text, free and without an account. Copyright terms differ by country: if you live outside the United States, check that the book is out of copyright where you are before you download it.

To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.