Du côté de chez Swann: reading level, length and free edition
Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust is a novel in French. Our team rates it C2. It runs to 168,956 words with 15,208 different word forms, about 14–28 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Marcel Proust
- Language
- French
- Level
- C2
- Form
- novel
- Words
- 168,956
- Different word forms
- 15,208
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 7,107 / 11,829
- Reading time
- 14–28 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Premier tome de La Recherche: mémoire involontaire et naissance de la vocation d’écrivain.
Is Du côté de chez Swann right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Du côté de chez Swann, you need its 7,107 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 11,829.
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 Du côté de chez Swann uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 37 French 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.
- peintre 53
- piano 36
- relations 34
- pianiste 32
- soirs 29
- différent 28
- lieux 27
- clocher 27
- sonate 27
- cocher 26
- souffrance 25
- douloureux 24
- différentes 24
- pensant 24
- particulière 24
How does it begin?
Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire: «Je m’endors.» Et, une demi-heure après, la pensée qu’il était temps de chercher le sommeil m’éveillait;
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 168,956 | 28 h | 19 h | 14 h | 11 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 #2650. 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
French books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Une saison en enfer, Arthur Rimbaud: 7,111 words, 1,888 forms for 95%
See also all French books by level and books at C2 in all five languages.