Madame Bovary: reading level, length and free edition

Name: Madame Bovary
Author: Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a novel in French. Our team rates it C1. It runs to 112,892 words with 13,138 different word forms, about 9.5–19 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: Gustave Flaubert
Language: French
Level: C1
Form: novel
Words: 112,892
Different word forms: 13,138
Forms for 95% / 98%: 7,494 / 10,881
Reading time: 9.5–19 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

Emma Bovary s’enlise dans l’ennui de la vie provinciale et rêve d’un ailleurs romanesque.

Is Madame Bovary right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in Madame Bovary, you need its 7,494 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 10,881. The median French C1 book in our table needs 5,122 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 6 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 Madame Bovary 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.

pharmacien 96
apothicaire 59
clerc 35
continuellement 32
pharmacie 31
billets 26
velours 23
tapis 22
bonnet 21
boutique 21
levait 21
descendait 21
paupières 21
ecclésiastique 21
marchand 20

How does it begin?

Permettez-moi d’inscrire votre nom en tête de ce livre et au-dessus même de sa dédicace; car c’est à vous, surtout, que j’en dois la publication. En passant par votre magnifique plaidoirie, mon œuvre a acquis pour moi-même comme une autorité imprévue.

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 *Madame Bovary* (112,892 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
112,892	19 h	13 h	9.5 h	7.5 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 #14155. 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.