I promessi sposi: reading level, length and free edition

Name: I promessi sposi
Author: Alessandro Manzoni

I promessi sposi by Alessandro Manzoni is a novel in Italian. Our team rates it C1. It runs to 230,062 words with 21,895 different word forms, about 19–38 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.

Author: Alessandro Manzoni
Language: Italian
Level: C1
Form: novel
Words: 230,062
Different word forms: 21,895
Forms for 95% / 98%: 10,406 / 17,294
Reading time: 19–38 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

Il grande romanzo storico italiano: Renzo e Lucia tra peste, guerra e provvidenza.

Is I promessi sposi right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in I promessi sposi, you need its 10,406 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 17,294. The median Italian C1 book in our table needs 4,856 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 5 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 I promessi sposi 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.

qualcheduno 60
lazzeretto 54
monastero 50
vossignoria 48
vicario 47
lettore 46
circostanze 43
affare 43
misericordia 42
facevan 39
sanità 38
danari 38
guardiano 38
illustrissima 37
podestà 36

How does it begin?

Chiudendo il Discorso che prepose alla ristampa, per la Biblioteca Italiana del Le Monnier, dei Versi e delle Prose del Parini (1846), Giuseppe Giusti scriveva: «Così la Lombardia perdè il suo poeta;

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 *I promessi sposi* (230,062 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
230,062	38 h	26 h	19 h	15 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 #45334. 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.