La lenteur vs White Nights: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Continental european fiction, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Fiction
La lenteur
“We suddenly had the urge to spend the evening and night in a chateau.”
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After the gravity of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Immortality, Slowness comes as a surprise: it is certainly Kundera's lightest novel, a divertimento, an opera buffa, with, as the author himself says, "not a…
White Nights
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White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a poignant short story about love, loneliness, and fleeting human connections. Set in St. Petersburg during the ethereal "white nights" of summer, it follows a dreamy, solitary…
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate White Nights highest: White Nights 4.1 · La lenteur 3.8.
- White Nights has the widest readership — 866 ratings behind its score.
Scores by source
| La lenteur | White Nights | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.0 (54) |
| Hardcover | 3.7 (7) | 3.9 (866) |
| Google Books | — | 5.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (364) |
Reception
| La lenteur | White Nights | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 8 | 866 |
| Editions | 29 | 10 |
| Film adaptations | — | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 75 |
| Reading it now | — | 80 |
| Written reviews | — | 4 |
| Wikipedia attention | — | 556 |
| Pages | 156 | 239 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: La lenteur or White Nights?
White Nights has the higher combined reader rating across sources (White Nights 4.1/5, La lenteur 3.8/5).
Which is shorter to read: La lenteur or White Nights?
La lenteur is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: La lenteur (156 pages, ≈ 2 h 53 m); White Nights (239 pages, ≈ 4 h 26 m).
Which is harder to read: La lenteur or White Nights?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — La lenteur: Moderate; White Nights: Moderate.