READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1839

How long does it take to read Nicholas Nickleby?

At an average reading speed, about 21 hours 5 minutes. Nicholas Nickleby is 328,703 words long, in 65 chapters.

WORDS: 328,703
CHAPTERS: 65
READING LEVEL: About grade 7 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Nicholas Nickleby at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	27 h 25 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	21 h 5 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	17 h 5 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 64 days
30 minutes a day: about 43 days
60 minutes a day: about 22 days

How many chapters are in Nicholas Nickleby?

Nicholas Nickleby has 65 chapters. The longest is Chapter 6 (9,114 words, 35 min); the shortest is Chapter 65 (1,068 words, 4 min). The average chapter takes 19 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of Nicholas Nickleby
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	2,098	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	4,679	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	4,345	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	4,869	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	4,356	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	9,114	35 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	3,222	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	5,176	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	6,193	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	5,504	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	2,119	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	4,564	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	5,559	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	4,695	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	5,232	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	7,801	30 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	3,737	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	5,465	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	6,426	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	4,829	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	5,118	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	6,300	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	5,083	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	6,682	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	5,285	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	4,334	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	5,828	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	6,738	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	3,706	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	6,320	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	3,108	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	4,176	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	2,894	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	6,418	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	6,901	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	3,355	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	7,126	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	6,171	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	3,580	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	6,948	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	5,157	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	4,659	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	5,926	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	6,121	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	5,290	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	5,857	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	6,525	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	4,595	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	6,500	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	5,842	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	4,558	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	5,178	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	6,923	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	4,887	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	5,186	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	5,217	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	4,471	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	2,521	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	6,248	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 60	4,977	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 61	4,382	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 62	2,455	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 63	4,322	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 64	3,784	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 65	1,068	4 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 Nicholas Nickleby 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 Nicholas Nickleby 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 Nicholas Nickleby, Project Gutenberg eBook #967, 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 (17.4 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
Middlemarch 20 h 20 min
Little Dorrit 22 h
The Pickwick Papers 19 h 40 min

Also by Charles Dickens

All reading times →