Le Rouge et le Noir: reading level, length and free edition
Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal is a novel in French. Our team rates it C1. It runs to 175,589 words with 12,211 different word forms, about 15–29 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Stendhal
- Language
- French
- Level
- C1
- Form
- novel
- Words
- 175,589
- Different word forms
- 12,211
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 5,122 / 8,700
- Reading time
- 15–29 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Ascension et chute de Julien Sorel, jeune ambitieux dans la France de la Restauration.
Is Le Rouge et le Noir right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Le Rouge et le Noir, you need its 5,122 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 8,700. The median French C1 book in our table needs 5,122 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is typical for its level: number 4 of 7, 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 Le Rouge et le Noir 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.
- séminaire 79
- maréchale 57
- précepteur 42
- bibliothèque 34
- naissance 33
- ambition 33
- latin 31
- vicaire 30
- affreuse 30
- excès 29
- vanité 27
- dépôt 26
- différence 26
- pénible 26
- politesse 26
How does it begin?
La petite ville de Verrières peut passer pour l’une des plus jolies de la Franche-Comté. Ses maisons blanches avec leurs toits pointus de tuiles rouges s’étendent sur la pente d’une colline, dont des touffes de vigoureux châtaigniers marquent les moindres sinuosités.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 175,589 | 29 h | 20 h | 15 h | 12 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 #798. 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
French books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Germinal, Émile Zola: 166,686 words, 6,604 forms for 95%
- Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert: 112,892 words, 7,494 forms for 95%
- Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo: 175,812 words, 8,142 forms for 95%
- Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire: 24,839 words, 4,594 forms for 95%
- Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: 41,944 words, 3,773 forms for 95%
- Fables de La Fontaine, Tome premier, Jean de La Fontaine: 6,910 words, 1,617 forms for 95%
See also all French books by level and books at C1 in all five languages.