Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812: reading level, length and free edition

Name: Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812
Author: Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812 by Napoleon Bonaparte is a letters in English, in English translation. Our team rates it C1. It runs to 91,618 words with 9,238 different word forms, about 7.5–15 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.

Cover of Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812

Author: Napoleon Bonaparte
Language: English
Level: C1
Form: letters
Words: 91,618
Different word forms: 9,238
Forms for 95% / 98%: 4,737 / 7,406
Reading time: 7.5–15 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

"Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812" by Emperor of the French Napoleon I is a collection of personal correspondence written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This compilation provides a unique glimpse into the intimate life and emotions of Napoleon Bonaparte as he navigates his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Josephine Beauharnais, during a period marked by his rising political and military prominence. The letters explore themes of love, longing, and the pressures of leadership, illustrating Napoleon’s passionate feelings as well as his vulnerabilities. At the start of the collection, Napoleon writes fervently to Josephine, expressing his deep affection and anxiety over her well-being during his military campaigns. His letters reveal a man consumed by love, often torn between his duties and his desire to be with her. He conveys a mixture of devotion and jealousy, coupled with a constant yearning to hear from her. The opening letters set the tone for the correspondence that follows, combining political context with personal sentiment, painting a multifaceted portrait of one of history’s most renowned figures through the lens of his relationship with Josephine.

Is Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812 right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812, you need its 4,737 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 7,406. The median English C1 book in our table needs 4,633 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is typical for its level: number 7 of 11, 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 Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812 uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 309 English 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.

defeats 82
writes 79
campaign 53
cannon 43
defeated 41
prisoners 38
bulletin 35
morrow 33
cheerful 33
generals 30
dated 29
occupy 29
regards 27
guns 27
signed 26

How does it begin?

" When all the lesser tumults, and lesser men of our age, shall have passed away into the darkness of oblivion, history will still inscribe one mighty era with the majestic name of Napoleon. "— Lockhart (in Lang’s "Life and Letters of J. G. Lockhart," 1897, vol. i. 170).

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 *Napoleon’s Letters to Josephine, 1796–1812* (91,618 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
91,618	15 h	10 h	7.5 h	6 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 #37499. 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.