READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1865

How long does it take to read Our Mutual Friend?

At an average reading speed, about 21 hours 30 minutes. Our Mutual Friend is 335,656 words long, in 67 chapters in four books.

WORDS: 335,656
CHAPTERS: 67
READING LEVEL: About grade 7 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Our Mutual Friend at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	28 h
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	21 h 30 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	17 h 30 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 65 days
30 minutes a day: about 44 days
60 minutes a day: about 22 days

How many chapters are in Our Mutual Friend?

Our Mutual Friend has 67 chapters in four books. The numbering starts again in each book. The longest is Book 2, Chapter 1 (7,636 words, 29 min); the shortest is Book 1, Chapter 17 (1,848 words, 7 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	1,929	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	4,612	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	5,800	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	4,824	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	6,838	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	6,662	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	3,603	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	5,509	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	5,970	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	5,527	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	6,430	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	6,383	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	4,060	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	3,346	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	5,899	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	6,563	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	1,848	7 min	Check it →

Book 2
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	7,636	29 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	4,695	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	4,424	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	5,123	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	6,054	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	5,353	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,555	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	6,832	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	3,411	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,603	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	5,045	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	6,132	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	6,184	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	5,479	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	6,776	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	4,844	19 min	Check it →

Book 3
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	5,094	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	4,142	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	2,373	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	5,072	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	6,225	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	6,086	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,821	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	4,777	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	7,058	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	5,478	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	3,930	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	3,355	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	4,262	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	5,302	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	6,346	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	6,232	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	4,585	18 min	Check it →

Book 4
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	4,851	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	4,062	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	4,131	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	4,174	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	7,288	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	5,769	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	4,705	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	4,443	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	4,699	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,800	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	4,922	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	5,580	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	4,413	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	5,106	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	4,914	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	4,710	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	3,002	12 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 Our Mutual Friend 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 Our Mutual Friend 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 Our Mutual Friend, Project Gutenberg eBook #883, 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 (16.3 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Nicholas Nickleby 21 h 5 min
Little Dorrit 22 h
Middlemarch 20 h 20 min
Bleak House 22 h 45 min

Also by Charles Dickens

All reading times →