Books by level / Italian books
Documenti Umani: reading level, length and free edition
Documenti Umani by Federico De Roberto is a short stories in Italian. Our team rates it B2. It runs to 58,657 words with 10,246 different word forms, about 5–10 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Federico De Roberto
- Language
- Italian
- Level
- B2
- Form
- short stories
- Words
- 58,657
- Different word forms
- 10,246
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 7,314 / 9,073
- Reading time
- 5–10 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Racconti veristi che scandagliano la psicologia di figure siciliane di fine Ottocento.
Is Documenti Umani right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Documenti Umani, you need its 7,314 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 9,073. The median Italian B2 book in our table needs 5,871 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 9 of 11, easiest first.
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 Documenti Umani uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 20 Italian 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.
- baronessa 59
- duchessa 33
- romanzo 17
- ginocchio 16
- oggetto 15
- ottobre 15
- glie 15
- umani 14
- passioni 14
- imagini 14
- analisi 14
- confessione 14
- tavolo 13
- attesa 13
- speranze 13
How does it begin?
LIPSIA, BERLINO, VIENNA, presso F. A. BROCKHAUS. BUENOS-AYRES, presso la LIBRERIA ITALIANA, Calle Florida, 266. PARIGI, presso J. Boyveau, 22, rue de la Banque.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58,657 | 10 h | 6.5 h | 5 h | 4 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 #25182. 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 B2
Italian books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Fedele ed altri racconti, Antonio Fogazzaro: 34,707 words, 5,185 forms for 95%
- Vecchie storie d’amore, Adolfo Albertazzi: 27,951 words, 4,783 forms for 95%
- L’Innocente, Gabriele D’Annunzio: 77,999 words, 7,329 forms for 95%
- La favorita del Mahdi, Emilio Salgari: 113,371 words, 7,184 forms for 95%
- I Robinson italiani, Emilio Salgari: 67,116 words, 6,377 forms for 95%
- Dopo il divorzio, Grazia Deledda: 56,909 words, 5,871 forms for 95%
See also all Italian books by level and books at B2 in all five languages.