Books by level / Italian books
Orlando Furioso: reading level, length and free edition
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto is an epic poem in Italian. Our team rates it C2. It runs to 266,145 words with 19,053 different word forms, about 22–44 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Ludovico Ariosto
- Language
- Italian
- Level
- C2
- Form
- epic poem
- Words
- 266,145
- Different word forms
- 19,053
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 7,913 / 13,731
- Reading time
- 22–44 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Poema cavalleresco rinascimentale intessuto d’amore, guerra e magia.
Is Orlando Furioso right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Orlando Furioso, you need its 7,913 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 13,731.
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 Orlando Furioso 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.
- camin 70
- sapea 66
- periglio 63
- paladino 61
- briglia 59
- giostra 59
- destriero 55
- camino 55
- gagliardo 54
- istoria 54
- ritrovar 51
- lontan 51
- tolta 50
- medesmo 49
- castel 49
How long does it take to read?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 266,145 | 44 h | 30 h | 22 h | 18 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 #3747. 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 C2
Italian books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- La Divina Commedia, Dante Alighieri: 97,718 words, 8,004 forms for 95%
See also all Italian books by level and books at C2 in all five languages.