READING TIME · CHARLES DICKENS · 1837

How long does it take to read The Pickwick Papers?

At an average reading speed, about 19 hours 40 minutes. The Pickwick Papers is 306,417 words long, in 57 chapters.

WORDS: 306,417
CHAPTERS: 57
READING LEVEL: About grade 6 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for The Pickwick Papers at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	25 h 30 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	19 h 40 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	16 h

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 59 days
30 minutes a day: about 40 days
60 minutes a day: about 20 days

How many chapters are in The Pickwick Papers?

The Pickwick Papers has 57 chapters. The longest is Chapter 2: The First Day’s Journey, and the First Evening’s Adventures; (9,826 words, 38 min); the shortest is Chapter 1: The Pickwickians (1,786 words, 7 min). The average chapter takes 21 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of The Pickwick Papers
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1: The Pickwickians	1,786	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 2: The First Day’s Journey, and the First Evening’s Adventures;	9,826	38 min	Check it →
Chapter 3: A New Acquaintance--the Stroller’s Tale--a Disagreeable	4,631	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 4: A Field Day and Bivouac--More New Friends--an Invitation to	4,632	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 5: A SHORT ONE--SHOWING, AMONG OTHER MATTERS, HOW Mr. PICKWICK	3,773	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 6: An Old-Fashioned Card-Party--the Clergyman’s Verses--the	5,950	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 7: How Mr. Winkle, Instead of Shooting at the Pigeon and	5,329	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 8: Strongly Illustrative of the Position, That the Course of	4,700	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 9: A Discovery and a Chase	3,319	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 10: Clearing Up All Doubts (If Any Existed) of the	5,364	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 11: Involving Another Journey, and an Antiquarian Discovery;	7,320	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 12: Descriptive of a Very Important Proceeding on the Part of	2,246	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 13: Some Account of Eatanswill; of the State of Parties	7,090	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 14: Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the	6,797	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 15: In Which Is Given a Faithful Portraiture of Two	5,201	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 16: Too Full of Adventure to Be Briefly Described	7,349	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 17: Showing That an Attack of Rheumatism, in Some Cases, Acts	3,515	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 18: Briefly Illustrative of Two Points; First, the Power of	3,888	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 19: A Pleasant Day with an Unpleasant Termination	5,373	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 20: Showing How Dodson and Fogg Were Men of Business, and Their	6,495	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 21: In Which the Old Man Launches Forth Into His Favourite	7,266	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 22: Mr. Pickwick Journeys to Ipswich and Meets with a Romantic	6,258	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 23: In Which Mr. Samuel Weller Begins to Devote His Energies	3,329	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 24: Wherein Mr. Peter Magnus Grows Jealous, and the Middle-	5,878	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 25: Showing, Among a Variety of Pleasant Matters, How Majestic	7,210	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 26: Which Contains a Brief Account of the Progress of the	2,481	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 27: Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds	3,756	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 28: A Good-Humoured Christmas Chapter, Containing an Account	8,899	34 min	Check it →
Chapter 29: The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton	4,136	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 30: How the Pickwickians Made and Cultivated the Acquaintance	4,391	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 31: Which Is All About the Law, and Sundry Great Authorities	6,103	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 32: Describes, Far More Fully Than the Court Newsman Ever	5,557	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 33: Mr. Weller the Elder Delivers Some Critical Sentiments	6,386	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 34: Is Wholly Devoted to a Full and Faithful Report of the	9,612	37 min	Check it →
Chapter 35: In Which Mr. Pickwick Thinks He Had Better Go to Bath; and	6,044	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 36: The Chief Features of Which Will Be Found to Be an	4,601	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 37: Honourably Accounts for Mr. Weller’s Absence, by	5,173	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 38: How Mr. Winkle, When He Stepped Out of the Frying-Pan,	5,418	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 39: Mr. Samuel Weller, Being Intrusted with a Mission of	6,039	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 40: Introduces Mr. Pickwick to a New and Not Uninteresting Scene	5,061	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 41: What Befell Mr. Pickwick When He Got Into the Fleet; What	5,225	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 42: Illustrative, Like the Preceding One, of the Old Proverb,	5,660	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 43: Showing How Mr. Samuel Weller Got Into Difficulties	5,106	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 44: Treats of Divers Little Matters Which Occurred in the	5,432	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 45: Descriptive of an Affecting Interview Between Mr. Samuel	6,581	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 46: Records a Touching Act of Delicate Feeling, Not Unmixed	3,843	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 47: Is Chiefly Devoted to Matters of Business, and the	4,725	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 48: Relates How Mr. Pickwick, with the Assistance of Samuel	5,114	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 49: Containing the Story of the Bagman’s Uncle	7,257	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 50: How Mr. Pickwick Sped Upon His Mission, and How He Was	5,851	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 51: In Which Mr. Pickwick Encounters an Old Acquaintance--to	5,653	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 52: Involving a Serious Change in the Weller Family, and the	4,669	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 53: Comprising the Final Exit of Mr. Jingle and Job Trotter,	4,873	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 54: Containing Some Particulars Relative to the Double Knock,	5,940	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 55: Mr. Solomon Pell, Assisted by a Select Committee of	4,853	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 56: An Important Conference Takes Place Between Mr. Pickwick	4,680	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 57: In Which the Pickwick Club Is Finally Dissolved, and	2,773	11 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 Pickwick Papers 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 The Pickwick Papers in Parlor →How Parlor practices reading comprehension

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How these numbers were worked out

Words are counted in The Pickwick Papers, Project Gutenberg eBook #580, 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 (13.7 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Vanity Fair 19 h 20 min
Middlemarch 20 h 20 min
Nicholas Nickleby 21 h 5 min
Our Mutual Friend 21 h 30 min

Also by Charles Dickens

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