READING TIME · ALEXANDRE DUMAS · 1844

How long does it take to read The Three Musketeers?

At an average reading speed, about 14 hours 40 minutes. The Three Musketeers is 228,897 words long, in 67 chapters, a conclusion and an epilogue.

WORDS: 228,897
CHAPTERS: 67
READING LEVEL: About grade 7 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for The Three Musketeers at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	19 h 5 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	14 h 40 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	11 h 55 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 45 days
30 minutes a day: about 30 days
60 minutes a day: about 15 days

How many chapters are in The Three Musketeers?

The Three Musketeers has 67 chapters. The longest is Chapter 6 (7,010 words, 27 min); the shortest is Chapter 62 (1,487 words, 6 min). The average chapter takes 13 min. In Parlor the conclusion and epilogue are at the end of chapter 67, so their words are counted there.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of The Three Musketeers
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	5,749	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	3,921	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	4,239	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	2,902	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	3,642	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	7,010	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	3,307	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	2,749	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	2,584	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	3,324	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	5,987	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	3,101	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	2,930	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	3,246	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	2,776	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	4,121	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	4,456	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	2,135	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	2,769	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	3,953	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	3,454	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	2,552	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	3,584	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	3,636	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	6,644	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	5,677	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	6,646	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	4,636	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	2,879	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	2,651	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	2,632	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	3,242	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	3,166	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	2,849	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	2,502	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	2,302	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	2,352	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	3,048	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	3,046	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	2,728	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	4,556	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	2,497	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	2,784	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	2,805	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	2,060	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	2,249	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	5,405	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	4,898	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	2,808	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	2,774	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	3,910	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	2,587	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	2,510	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	3,142	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	3,003	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	5,465	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	2,272	9 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	2,739	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	3,530	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 60	1,939	7 min	Check it →
Chapter 61	4,323	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 62	1,487	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 63	4,603	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 64	2,001	8 min	Check it →
Chapter 65	2,563	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 66	1,532	6 min	Check it →
Chapter 67	3,328	13 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 Three Musketeers 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 Three Musketeers 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 The Three Musketeers, Project Gutenberg eBook #1257, 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 (15.1 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

Adam Bede 13 h 50 min
The Deerslayer 13 h 35 min
Moby-Dick 13 h 25 min
Jane Eyre 11 h 55 min

Also by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo 29 h 40 min

All reading times →