READING TIME · JANE AUSTEN · 1813

How long does it take to read Pride and Prejudice?

At an average reading speed, about 7 hours 50 minutes. Pride and Prejudice is 122,483 words long, in 61 chapters, first published in three volumes.

WORDS: 122,483
CHAPTERS: 61
READING LEVEL: About grade 8 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Pride and Prejudice at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	10 h 10 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	7 h 50 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	6 h 25 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 24 days
30 minutes a day: about 16 days
60 minutes a day: about 8 days

How many chapters are in Pride and Prejudice?

Pride and Prejudice has 61 chapters. The longest is Chapter 18 (5,201 words, 20 min); the shortest is Chapter 12 (675 words, 3 min). The average chapter takes 8 min. The chapters are numbered 1 to 61 straight through. Editions that restart the numbering in each volume have chapters 1–23, 1–19 and 1–19.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of Pride and Prejudice
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	884	3 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	809	3 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	1,720	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	1,069	4 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	968	4 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	2,372	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	2,001	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	1,945	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	1,730	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,234	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	1,601	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	675	3 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	1,697	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	1,131	4 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	1,692	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	3,386	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	1,280	5 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	5,201	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	1,922	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	1,654	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	2,017	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	1,758	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	1,621	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	1,929	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	1,534	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	2,339	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	1,259	5 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	1,479	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	2,387	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	1,252	5 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	1,557	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	1,511	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	1,861	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	2,112	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	3,000	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	2,017	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	1,383	5 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	1,054	4 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	1,635	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	1,699	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	2,286	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	1,831	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	4,852	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	2,351	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	1,735	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	3,030	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	4,085	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	2,269	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	2,268	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	2,210	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	2,081	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	3,034	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	2,945	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	1,613	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	2,330	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	2,750	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	1,673	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	2,447	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	2,479	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 60	1,587	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 61	1,252	5 min	Check it →

Studying it for class? The Pride and Prejudice study guide has discussion questions for each chapter, passages to look at and a worked close reading.

READING IT FOR CLASS?

Knowing how long it takes is one thing. Understanding it is another.

Parlor Study is a reading comprehension companion. Read Pride and Prejudice 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 Pride and Prejudice 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 Pride and Prejudice, Project Gutenberg eBook #1342, 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 (17.2 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Babbitt 7 h 55 min
Robinson Crusoe 7 h 45 min
The Odyssey 8 h 10 min
Lord Jim 8 h 15 min

Also by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility 7 h 40 min
Emma 10 h 15 min
Persuasion 5 h 20 min

All reading times →