Books by level / Italian books
Enrico IV: reading level, length and free edition
Enrico IV by Luigi Pirandello is a play in Italian. Our team rates it C1. It runs to 18,998 words with 3,467 different word forms, about 1.5–3 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Luigi Pirandello
- Language
- Italian
- Level
- C1
- Form
- play
- Words
- 18,998
- Different word forms
- 3,467
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 2,518 / 3,088
- Reading time
- 1.5–3 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Dramma filosofico su un uomo che dopo una caduta crede di essere l’imperatore Enrico IV.
Is Enrico IV right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Enrico IV, you need its 2,518 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 3,088. The median Italian C1 book in our table needs 4,856 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is easier than most for its level: number 1 of 5, 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 Enrico IV 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.
- indica 35
- trono 20
- voltandosi 17
- guarito 14
- mica 13
- burla 13
- guardate 13
- pazzi 13
- capisci 12
- neanche 11
- lampa 11
- accenna 10
- sajo 9
- parete 8
- indicando 8
How does it begin?
(Salone nella villa rigidamente parato in modo da figurare quella che potè essere la sala del trono di Enrico IV nella casa imperiale di Goslar.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18,998 | 3 h | 2 h | 1.5 h | 1.5 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 #18456. 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 C1
Italian books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- La mandragola · La Clizia · Belfagor, Niccolò Machiavelli: 29,244 words, 3,353 forms for 95%
- I Canti, Giacomo Leopardi: 25,789 words, 4,856 forms for 95%
- L’umorismo, Luigi Pirandello: 51,514 words, 6,438 forms for 95%
- I promessi sposi, Alessandro Manzoni: 230,062 words, 10,406 forms for 95%
See also all Italian books by level and books at C1 in all five languages.