Is The Secret Garden hard to read? Its reading level from A1 to C2
How many words in every 100 you will probably not know, at each level from A1 to C2. Estimated over the whole book with Solaread’s own word-difficulty model.
- Author
- Frances Hodgson Burnett
- First published
- 1910
- Length
- About 78,100 words
- Copyright
- Public domain
Short answer
Just right from C1: 4.2 new words in every 100. At B1 it is a little hard, 8.3 in 100. It is the fourth easiest of the 20 English classics we measured.
New words per 100, by level
Estimated over all 78,079 running words. Character names are left out. The labels follow Solaread’s difficulty scale: Easy means knowing 98 of every 100 words, Just right 95, A little hard 90, and below that Too hard.
The Secret Garden vocabulary by level
At A2
- tha260×
- garden263×
- robin112×
- moor93×
- thee90×
- cry110×
- begin152×
- laugh94×
- nurse64×
- magic94×
- queer57×
- stare56×
The 12 words an A2 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 8% of the new words at this level.
At B1
- tha260×
- moor93×
- thee90×
- queer57×
- stare56×
- lad48×
- whisper38×
- aye39×
- robin112×
- corridor34×
- inquire26×
- scarcely25×
The 12 words a B1 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 10% of the new words at this level.
At B2
- tha260×
- moor93×
- exclaim22×
- queer57×
- scarcely25×
- inquire26×
- spade22×
- mun19×
- knowed18×
- to-day17×
- oblige18×
- gardener24×
The 12 words a B2 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 10% of the new words at this level.
The opening lines
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people.
Open the free EPUB in Solaread and the words it marks follow your own level, with glosses in the language you choose.
Books with a similar level
- Dracula7.8 new words per 100 at B1
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes8.5 at B1
- Pride and Prejudice8.6 at B1
Questions
Is The Secret Garden hard to read?
At B1 it is a little hard, with 8.3 new words in every 100 (about one in 12). It is just right from C1.
What is the reading level of The Secret Garden?
On Solaread’s scale it is just right from C1, and the fourth easiest of the 20 English classics we measured. At B2, 5.2 in every 100 words are new.
Where can I get The Secret Garden for free?
It is in the public domain. Project Gutenberg has a free EPUB you can import into Solaread.
Read it with help only where you need it
Import the free EPUB. Solaread marks the words you probably don’t know, at your level.