The Murders in the Rue Morgue: reading level, length and free edition

Name: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Author: Edgar Allan Poe

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story adapted for learners in English. Our team rates it A2. It runs to 6,591 words with 1,091 different word forms, about under 1–1 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from VOA Learning English.

By the Readlang Mobile team (an independent app, not affiliated with readlang.com). Updated 31 October 2026.

Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Language: English
Level: A2
Form: short story, adapted
Words: 6,591
Different word forms: 1,091
Forms for 95% / 98%: 762 / 960
Reading time: under 1–1 h
Free edition: VOA Learning English

Is The Murders in the Rue Morgue right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, you need its 762 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 960. The median English A2 book in our table needs 415 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 58 of 60, 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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue 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.

nail 17
killer 16
murders 14
newspaper 10
maybe 7
unusual 7
orangutan 7
sailor 7
murderer 6
knife 6
chimney 6
marks 6
killings 6
pole 6
fruit 5

How does it begin?

Paris! It was in Paris during the summer of 1840. There and then, I met a strange and interesting young man named August Dupin. Dupin was the last member of a well-known family, a family which had once been rich and famous. August Dupin, however, was far from rich.

From the VOA Learning English 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 *The Murders in the Rue Morgue* (6,591 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
6,591	1 h	under 1 h	under 1 h	under 1 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?

This is not the original text but an adaptation for learners of English by VOA Learning English (Voice of America), from its American Stories series: shorter sentences, a limited vocabulary and an audio recording read at a slower speed. Text and audio are free on the VOA site. Material produced by the Voice of America, a U.S. government broadcaster, is in the public domain.

VOA published the story in 5 parts, each with a recording of the text read slowly:

To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.