READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1857

How long does it take to read Little Dorrit?

At an average reading speed, about 22 hours. Little Dorrit is 342,927 words long, in 70 chapters in two books.

WORDS: 342,927
CHAPTERS: 70
READING LEVEL: About grade 8 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Little Dorrit at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	28 h 35 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	22 h
Quick reader	320 words a minute	17 h 50 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 66 days
30 minutes a day: about 44 days
60 minutes a day: about 22 days

How many chapters are in Little Dorrit?

Little Dorrit has 70 chapters in two books. The numbering starts again in each book. The longest is Book 2, Chapter 30: Closing in (10,571 words, 41 min); the shortest is Book 1, Chapter 4: Mrs Flintwinch has a Dream (1,261 words, 5 min). The average chapter takes 19 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Book 1
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1: Sun and Shadow	5,618	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 2: Fellow Travellers	5,441	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 3: Home	5,547	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 4: Mrs Flintwinch has a Dream	1,261	5 min	Check it →
Chapter 5: Family Affairs	4,818	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 6: The Father of the Marshalsea	4,377	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 7: The Child of the Marshalsea	4,470	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 8: The Lock	4,663	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 9: Little Mother	5,765	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 10: Containing the whole Science of Government	8,188	31 min	Check it →
Chapter 11: Let Loose	4,229	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 12: Bleeding Heart Yard	3,871	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 13: Patriarchal	9,634	37 min	Check it →
Chapter 14: Little Dorrit’s Party	5,130	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 15: Mrs Flintwinch has another Dream	3,793	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 16: Nobody’s Weakness	5,890	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 17: Nobody’s Rival	3,846	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 18: Little Dorrit’s Lover	4,128	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 19: The Father of the Marshalsea in two or three Relations	4,785	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 20: Moving in Society	5,923	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 21: Mr Merdle’s Complaint	3,522	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 22: A Puzzle	3,835	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 23: Machinery in Motion	6,819	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 24: Fortune-Telling	6,869	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 25: Conspirators and Others	4,253	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 26: Nobody’s State of Mind	5,388	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 27: Five-and-Twenty	5,267	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 28: Nobody’s Disappearance	3,190	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 29: Mrs Flintwinch goes on Dreaming	3,328	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 30: The Word of a Gentleman	6,574	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 31: Spirit	6,550	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 32: More Fortune-Telling	3,888	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 33: Mrs Merdle’s Complaint	4,218	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 34: A Shoal of Barnacles	4,056	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 35: What was behind Mr Pancks on Little Dorrit’s Hand	5,680	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 36: The Marshalsea becomes an Orphan	3,063	12 min	Check it →

Book 2
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1: Fellow Travellers	6,498	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 2: Mrs General	1,763	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 3: On the Road	6,627	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 4: A Letter from Little Dorrit	1,664	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 5: Something Wrong Somewhere	6,307	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 6: Something Right Somewhere	6,294	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 7: Mostly, Prunes and Prism	4,774	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 8: The Dowager Mrs Gowan is reminded that ‘It Never Does’	4,924	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 9: Appearance and Disappearance	6,703	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 10: The Dreams of Mrs Flintwinch thicken	3,134	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 11: A Letter from Little Dorrit	2,670	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 12: In which a Great Patriotic Conference is holden	6,306	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 13: The Progress of an Epidemic	6,341	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 14: Taking Advice	4,533	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 15: No just Cause or Impediment why these Two Persons	6,748	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 16: Getting on	2,882	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 17: Missing	4,187	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 18: A Castle in the Air	2,763	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 19: The Storming of the Castle in the Air	6,444	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 20: Introduces the next	4,279	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 21: The History of a Self-Tormentor	4,068	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 22: Who passes by this Road so late?	2,776	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 23: Mistress Affery makes a Conditional Promise,	5,374	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 24: The Evening of a Long Day	4,242	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 25: The Chief Butler Resigns the Seals of Office	3,908	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 26: Reaping the Whirlwind	3,717	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 27: The Pupil of the Marshalsea	6,226	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 28: An Appearance in the Marshalsea	7,612	29 min	Check it →
Chapter 29: A Plea in the Marshalsea	3,918	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 30: Closing in	10,571	41 min	Check it →
Chapter 31: Closed	3,976	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 32: Going	3,202	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 33: Going!	4,539	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 34: Gone	5,080	20 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 Little Dorrit 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 Little Dorrit 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 Little Dorrit, Project Gutenberg eBook #963, 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 (18.8 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Our Mutual Friend 21 h 30 min
Bleak House 22 h 45 min
Nicholas Nickleby 21 h 5 min
David Copperfield 23 h 10 min

Also by Charles Dickens

All reading times →