Short Stories: reading level, length and free edition

Name: Short Stories
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a short stories in English, in English translation. Our team rates it B1. It runs to 81,223 words with 6,905 different word forms, about 7–14 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: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Language: English
Level: B1
Form: short stories
Words: 81,223
Different word forms: 6,905
Forms for 95% / 98%: 3,309 / 5,281
Reading time: 7–14 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

"Short Stories" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a collection of narratives written in the late 19th century. The book includes tales that delve into human psychology, moral dilemmas, and social issues, exploring the complexities of character and society through various protagonists. Among the stories included is "An Honest Thief," which introduces a bachelor and his curious relationship with his housekeeper and a new lodger, revealing themes of empathy, loneliness and the nature of theft. At the start of the collection, the opening story begins with the narrator, a solitary bachelor, having an unexpected conversation with his usually quiet housekeeper, Agrafena. She insists on taking in a lodger, an old soldier named Astafy Ivanovitch, which initially fills the narrator with relief at the prospect of companionship. However, a theft of the narrator’s greatcoat soon creates tension between the characters, particularly Astafy, who becomes fixated on the incident, revealing his own vulnerability and moral struggles. This introduction sets the stage for Dostoyevsky’s exploration of human relationships and the contradictions within them.

Is Short Stories right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in Short Stories, you need its 3,309 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 5,281. The median English B1 book in our table needs 702 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 18 of 21, 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 Short Stories 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.

crocodile 121
khee 69
clerk 32
roubles 31
utterly 31
morrow 31
raccoon 31
drunk 29
goodness 28
drinking 26
wedding 25
guests 22
unpleasant 21
bride 21
proprietor 21

How does it begin?

One morning, just as I was about to set off to my office, Agrafena, my cook, washerwoman and housekeeper, came in to me and, to my surprise, entered into conversation.

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 *Short Stories* (81,223 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
81,223	14 h	9 h	7 h	5.5 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 #40745. 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.