READING TIME · MARK TWAIN · 1881
How long does it take to read The Prince and the Pauper?
At an average reading speed, about 4 hours 25 minutes. The Prince and the Pauper is 68,792 words long, in 33 chapters.
- WORDS
- 68,792
- CHAPTERS
- 33
- READING LEVEL
- About grade 8 (Flesch–Kincaid)
Reading time at different speeds
| Reader | Speed | Whole book |
|---|---|---|
| Unhurried | 200 words a minute | 5 h 45 min |
| Average adult reader | 260 words a minute | 4 h 25 min |
| Quick reader | 320 words a minute | 3 h 35 min |
To finish it at a steady pace:
- 20 minutes a day: about 14 days
- 30 minutes a day: about 9 days
- 60 minutes a day: about 5 days
How many chapters are in The Prince and the Pauper?
The Prince and the Pauper has 33 chapters. The longest is Chapter 33: Edward as King (5,803 words, 22 min); the shortest is Chapter 1: The birth of the Prince and the Pauper (258 words, 1 min). The average chapter takes 8 min.
Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.
| Chapter | Words | Reading time | Practice in Parlor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 1: The birth of the Prince and the Pauper | 258 | 1 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 2: Tom’s early life | 1,613 | 6 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 3: Tom’s meeting with the Prince | 2,166 | 8 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 4: The Prince’s troubles begin | 1,238 | 5 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 5: Tom as a Patrician | 2,347 | 9 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 6: Tom receives instructions | 2,545 | 10 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 7: Tom’s first royal dinner | 1,211 | 5 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 8: The Question of the Seal | 836 | 3 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 9: The river pageant | 893 | 3 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 10: The Prince in the toils | 2,904 | 11 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 11: At Guildhall | 1,576 | 6 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 12: The Prince and his Deliverer | 3,877 | 15 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 13: The disappearance of the Prince | 1,408 | 5 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 14: ‘Le Roi est mort--vive le Roi.’ | 3,789 | 15 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 15: Tom as King | 3,568 | 14 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 16: The State Dinner | 948 | 4 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 17: Foo-foo the First | 3,467 | 13 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 18: The Prince with the Tramps | 2,810 | 11 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 19: The Prince with the peasants | 1,959 | 8 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 20: The Prince and the hermit | 2,209 | 8 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 21: Hendon to the rescue | 1,444 | 6 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 22: A Victim of Treachery | 1,955 | 8 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 23: The Prince a prisoner | 1,111 | 4 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 24: The Escape | 926 | 4 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 25: Hendon Hall | 2,337 | 9 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 26: Disowned | 1,368 | 5 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 27: In Prison | 3,341 | 13 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 28: The sacrifice | 1,236 | 5 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 29: To London | 712 | 3 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 30: Tom’s progress | 857 | 3 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 31: The Recognition procession | 2,071 | 8 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 32: Coronation Day | 4,009 | 15 min | Check it → |
| Chapter 33: Edward as King | 5,803 | 22 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 Prince and the Pauper 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.
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 Prince and the Pauper, Project Gutenberg eBook #1837, 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 (19.7 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.
Similar length
- The Scarlet Letter 4 h 25 min
- Agnes Grey 4 h 25 min
- The Sun Also Rises 4 h 20 min
- A Room with a View 4 h 20 min
Also by Mark Twain
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 7 h 5 min
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 4 h 30 min
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 7 h 20 min