READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1853

How long does it take to read Bleak House?

At an average reading speed, about 22 hours 45 minutes. Bleak House is 354,409 words long, in 67 chapters.

WORDS: 354,409
CHAPTERS: 67
READING LEVEL: About grade 6 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Bleak House at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	29 h 30 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	22 h 45 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	18 h 30 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 69 days
30 minutes a day: about 46 days
60 minutes a day: about 23 days

How many chapters are in Bleak House?

Bleak House has 67 chapters. The longest is Chapter 6 (8,702 words, 33 min); the shortest is Chapter 67 (1,681 words, 6 min). The average chapter takes 20 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of Bleak House
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	2,614	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	2,903	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	7,898	30 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	4,898	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	5,698	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	8,702	33 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,236	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	8,308	32 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	6,263	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	4,213	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	5,858	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	5,557	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	6,049	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	8,557	33 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	6,337	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	3,505	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	5,684	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	7,115	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	5,408	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	5,648	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	6,896	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	5,185	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	7,388	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	7,408	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	3,519	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	5,160	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	4,922	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	4,604	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	3,832	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	6,544	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	6,547	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	5,406	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	5,883	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	6,246	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	6,199	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	6,764	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	7,734	30 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	4,268	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	6,291	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	4,573	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	3,448	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	2,799	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	6,326	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	3,100	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	5,378	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	3,497	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	5,777	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	6,318	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	5,479	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	4,099	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	4,641	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	4,483	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	4,437	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	8,523	33 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	6,464	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	3,230	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	7,479	29 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	5,672	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	5,353	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 60	5,211	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 61	4,265	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 62	3,608	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 63	3,180	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 64	4,460	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 65	2,961	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 66	1,720	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 67	1,681	6 min	Check it →

READING IT FOR CLASS?

Knowing how long it takes is one thing. Understanding it is another.

Parlor Study is a reading comprehension companion. Read Bleak House one chapter at a time, then make sure you understood it.

Read a chapter. The full Project Gutenberg text, with highlights, notes and read-aloud.
Explain it in your own words. Challenge me asks about the main idea, what the text suggests without saying, and the turn the chapter hinges on, then checks your answer against the text.
Talk it through, then come back. Discuss stays within the chapters you have reached, so it won’t give away what comes next, and Revisit brings your ideas back later.

Open Bleak House in Parlor →How Parlor practices reading comprehension

Parlor Study is a web preview for ages 13 and up, available by invitation. Request an invitation. AI feedback can make mistakes; check it against the text.

How these numbers were worked out

Words are counted in Bleak House, Project Gutenberg eBook #1023, the edition Parlor opens, divided into chapters exactly as Parlor shows them. Project Gutenberg’s licence and notes are left out. Other editions may differ slightly.

Reading speeds follow Marc Brysbaert’s review of 190 studies, which found that adults read English silently at about 260 words a minute for fiction and 238 for non-fiction (Journal of Memory and Language, 2019). Older and more difficult books often take longer than their word count suggests.

The reading level is the Flesch–Kincaid grade, worked out from average sentence length (14.7 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

David Copperfield 23 h 10 min
Little Dorrit 22 h
Our Mutual Friend 21 h 30 min
Nicholas Nickleby 21 h 5 min

Also by Charles Dickens

All reading times →