READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1854

How long does it take to read Hard Times?

At an average reading speed, about 6 hours 45 minutes. Hard Times is 105,851 words long, in 37 chapters in three books.

WORDS: 105,851
CHAPTERS: 37
READING LEVEL: About grade 6 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Hard Times at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	8 h 50 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	6 h 45 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	5 h 30 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 21 days
30 minutes a day: about 14 days
60 minutes a day: about 7 days

How many chapters are in Hard Times?

Hard Times has 37 chapters in three books. The numbering starts again in each book. The longest is Book 1, Chapter 6 (5,096 words, 20 min); the shortest is Book 1, Chapter 1 (325 words, 1 min). The average chapter takes 11 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Book 1
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	325	1 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	2,098	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	1,745	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	2,577	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	2,145	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	5,096	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	2,429	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	2,170	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	2,915	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,103	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	2,837	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	1,905	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	3,071	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	1,783	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	2,861	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	2,029	8 min	Check it →

Book 2
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	4,849	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	3,030	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	1,832	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	2,965	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	2,623	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	4,645	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,784	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	4,835	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	3,105	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	1,620	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	3,292	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	1,694	7 min	Check it →

Book 3
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	2,323	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	3,451	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	3,167	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	3,599	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	3,305	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	3,870	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,310	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	2,481	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	1,982	8 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 Hard Times 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 Hard Times 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 Hard Times, Project Gutenberg eBook #786, 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 (15 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

The Sea-Wolf 6 h 45 min
Kim 6 h 50 min
Little Men 6 h 45 min
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 6 h 45 min

Also by Charles Dickens

All reading times →