READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1861

How long does it take to read Great Expectations?

At an average reading speed, about 11 hours 55 minutes. Great Expectations is 185,338 words long, in 59 chapters, in three stages of Pip's life.

WORDS: 185,338
CHAPTERS: 59
READING LEVEL: About grade 7 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Great Expectations at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	15 h 25 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	11 h 55 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	9 h 40 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 36 days
30 minutes a day: about 24 days
60 minutes a day: about 12 days

How many chapters are in Great Expectations?

Great Expectations has 59 chapters. The longest is Chapter 19 (5,738 words, 22 min); the shortest is Chapter 6 (780 words, 3 min). The average chapter takes 12 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of Great Expectations
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	1,827	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	3,423	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	1,968	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	3,382	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	4,182	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	780	3 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	3,990	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	4,744	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	2,621	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,506	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	5,321	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	2,238	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	2,827	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	829	3 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	4,257	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	1,926	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	3,361	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	5,038	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	5,738	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	3,136	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	1,763	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	4,925	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	3,181	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	2,288	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	2,950	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	2,842	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	3,017	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	2,425	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	4,919	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	3,322	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	2,142	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	2,219	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	2,710	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	2,325	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	3,087	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	2,524	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	2,823	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	4,871	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	4,888	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	5,230	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	2,167	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	3,035	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	1,954	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	2,898	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	2,950	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	2,960	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	2,566	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	2,714	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	3,609	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	1,514	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	2,978	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	2,031	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	5,225	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	5,716	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	2,845	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	2,186	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	4,900	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	3,075	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	1,470	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 Great Expectations 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 Great Expectations 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 Great Expectations, Project Gutenberg eBook #1400, 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 (17.6 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Ivanhoe 11 h 55 min
Jane Eyre 11 h 55 min
Uncle Tom's Cabin 11 h 40 min
North and South 11 h 40 min

Also by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol 1 h 50 min
A Tale of Two Cities 8 h 40 min
Oliver Twist 10 h 5 min

All reading times →