Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours: reading level, length and free edition
Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours by Jules Verne is a novel in French. Our team rates it B2. It runs to 68,581 words with 8,791 different word forms, about 5.5–11 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Jules Verne
- Language
- French
- Level
- B2
- Form
- novel
- Words
- 68,581
- Different word forms
- 8,791
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 5,362 / 7,420
- Reading time
- 5.5–11 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Phileas Fogg parie qu’il peut faire le tour du monde en 80 jours.
Is Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, you need its 5,362 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 7,420. The median French B2 book in our table needs 5,364 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is typical for its level: number 4 of 8, 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 tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours 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.
- gentleman 87
- paquebot 71
- station 45
- guide 42
- agent 41
- wagon 41
- pilote 39
- traversée 36
- retard 33
- éléphant 31
- voleur 30
- consul 30
- passagers 30
- pari 28
- vingts 26
How does it begin?
XXI OÙ LE PATRON DE LA « Tankadère » RISQUE FORT DE PERDRE UNE PRIME DE DEUX CENTS LIVRES
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68,581 | 11 h | 7.5 h | 5.5 h | 4.5 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 #800. 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
French books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, Gaston Leroux: 102,569 words, 4,785 forms for 95%
- Voyage au centre de la Terre, Jules Verne: 67,960 words, 6,070 forms for 95%
- Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier: 64,901 words, 4,421 forms for 95%
- Les misérables, Tome I: Fantine, Victor Hugo: 111,879 words, 6,400 forms for 95%
- Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur, Maurice Leblanc: 55,408 words, 5,365 forms for 95%
- Lettres de mon moulin, Alphonse Daudet: 49,509 words, 5,522 forms for 95%
See also all French books by level and books at B2 in all five languages.