Voyage au centre de la Terre: reading level, length and free edition
Voyage au centre de la Terre by Jules Verne is a novel in French. Our team rates it B2. It runs to 67,960 words with 9,468 different word forms, about 5.5–11 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Jules Verne
- Language
- French
- Level
- B2
- Form
- novel
- Words
- 67,960
- Different word forms
- 9,468
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 6,070 / 8,109
- Reading time
- 5.5–11 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Un professeur descend dans un volcan islandais à la recherche d’un monde perdu.
Is Voyage au centre de la Terre right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Voyage au centre de la Terre, you need its 6,070 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 8,109. The median French B2 book in our table needs 5,364 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is typical for its level: number 7 of 8, 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 Voyage au centre de la Terre 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.
- radeau 70
- écriai 65
- cratère 39
- granit 38
- chasseur 37
- terrestre 34
- guide 33
- couches 32
- document 30
- volcan 27
- rivage 26
- lave 26
- boussole 25
- roches 24
- écorce 24
How does it begin?
the image files at www://gallica.bnf.fr, authorizing the preparation of the etext through OCR.
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?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67,960 | 11 h | 7.5 h | 5.5 h | 4.5 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 #4791. 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 B2
French books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- Les misérables, Tome I: Fantine, Victor Hugo: 111,879 words, 6,400 forms for 95%
- Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, Jules Verne: 68,581 words, 5,362 forms for 95%
- Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, Gaston Leroux: 102,569 words, 4,785 forms for 95%
- Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier: 64,901 words, 4,421 forms for 95%
- Lettres de mon moulin, Alphonse Daudet: 49,509 words, 5,522 forms for 95%
- Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur, Maurice Leblanc: 55,408 words, 5,365 forms for 95%
See also all French books by level and books at B2 in all five languages.