Die Geburt der Tragödie: reading level, length and free edition
Die Geburt der Tragödie by Friedrich Nietzsche is a philosophy in German. Our team rates it C2. It runs to 41,816 words with 8,105 different word forms, about 3.5–7 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Language
- German
- Level
- C2
- Form
- philosophy
- Words
- 41,816
- Different word forms
- 8,105
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 6,015 / 7,269
- Reading time
- 3.5–7 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Is Die Geburt der Tragödie right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Die Geburt der Tragödie, you need its 6,015 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 7,269.
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 Die Geburt der Tragödie uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 40 German 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.
- apollinischen 63
- dionysische 57
- tragischen 52
- griechischen 47
- apollinische 37
- tragische 30
- griechische 21
- hellenischen 18
- eigentliche 18
- sokratischen 18
- ungeheure 17
- gewiss 17
- aesthetischen 17
- künstlerischen 17
- metaphysischen 16
How does it begin?
Was auch diesem fragwürdigen Buche zu Grunde liegen mag: es muss eine Frage ersten Ranges und Reizes gewesen sein, noch dazu eine tief persönliche Frage, - Zeugniss dafür ist die Zeit, in der es entstand, trotz der es entstand, die aufregende Zeit des deutsch-französischen Krieges von 1870/71.
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?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41,816 | 7 h | 4.5 h | 3.5 h | 3 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 #7206. 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.
What to read next at C2
German books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Faust: Der Tragödie zweiter Teil, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 45,471 words, 7,939 forms for 95%
See also all German books by level and books at C2 in all five languages.