READING TIME · ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE · 1892
How long does it take to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?
At an average reading speed, about 6 hours 45 minutes. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is 104,923 words long, in 12 stories.
- WORDS
- 104,923
- STORIES
- 12
- READING LEVEL
- About grade 6 (Flesch–Kincaid)
Reading time at different speeds
| Reader | Speed | Whole book |
|---|---|---|
| Unhurried | 200 words a minute | 8 h 45 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 stories are in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes has 12 stories. The longest is XII. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (10,028 words, 39 min); the shortest is III. A Case of Identity (6,988 words, 27 min). The average story takes 34 min.
Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.
| Story | Words | Reading time | Practice in Parlor |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. A Scandal in Bohemia | 8,560 | 33 min | Check it → |
| II. The Red-Headed League | 9,178 | 35 min | Check it → |
| III. A Case of Identity | 6,988 | 27 min | Check it → |
| IV. The Boscombe Valley Mystery | 9,641 | 37 min | Check it → |
| V. The Five Orange Pips | 7,364 | 28 min | Check it → |
| VI. The Man with the Twisted Lip | 9,216 | 35 min | Check it → |
| VII. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle | 7,854 | 30 min | Check it → |
| VIII. The Adventure of the Speckled Band | 9,826 | 38 min | Check it → |
| IX. The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb | 8,374 | 32 min | Check it → |
| X. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor | 8,144 | 31 min | Check it → |
| XI. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet | 9,750 | 38 min | Check it → |
| XII. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches | 10,028 | 39 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 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes one story at a time, then make sure you understood it.
- Read a story. 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 story hinges on, then checks your answer against the text.
- Talk it through, then come back. Discuss stays within the stories you have reached, so it won’t give away what comes next, and Revisit brings your ideas back later.
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 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Project Gutenberg eBook #1661, the edition Parlor opens, divided into stories 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 (14.9 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.
Similar length
- Little Men 6 h 45 min
- The Sea-Wolf 6 h 45 min
- Hard Times 6 h 45 min
- Kim 6 h 50 min
Also by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Hound of the Baskervilles 3 h 50 min
- A Study in Scarlet 2 h 45 min
- The Sign of the Four 2 h 45 min