READING TIME · H. G. WELLS · 1898
How long does it take to read The War of the Worlds?
At an average reading speed, about 3 hours 50 minutes. The War of the Worlds is 60,021 words long, in 27 chapters in two books, the last of them an epilogue.
- WORDS
- 60,021
- CHAPTERS
- 27
- READING LEVEL
- About grade 8 (Flesch–Kincaid)
Reading time at different speeds
| Reader | Speed | Whole book |
|---|---|---|
| Unhurried | 200 words a minute | 5 h |
| Average adult reader | 260 words a minute | 3 h 50 min |
| Quick reader | 320 words a minute | 3 h 10 min |
To finish it at a steady pace:
- 20 minutes a day: about 12 days
- 30 minutes a day: about 8 days
- 60 minutes a day: about 4 days
How many chapters are in The War of the Worlds?
The War of the Worlds has 27 chapters in two books. The numbering starts again in each book. The longest is Book 2, VII. The Man on Putney Hill (5,569 words, 21 min); the shortest is Book 1, VI. The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road (829 words, 3 min). The average chapter takes 9 min.
Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.
| Chapter | Words | Reading time | Practice in Parlor |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. The Eve of the War | 2,226 | 9 min | Check it → |
| II. The Falling Star | 1,337 | 5 min | Check it → |
| III. On Horsell Common | 1,012 | 4 min | Check it → |
| IV. The Cylinder Opens | 1,117 | 4 min | Check it → |
| V. The Heat-Ray | 1,480 | 6 min | Check it → |
| VI. The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road | 829 | 3 min | Check it → |
| VII. How I Reached Home | 1,316 | 5 min | Check it → |
| VIII. Friday Night | 972 | 4 min | Check it → |
| IX. The Fighting Begins | 2,122 | 8 min | Check it → |
| X. In the Storm | 2,253 | 9 min | Check it → |
| XI. At the Window | 2,026 | 8 min | Check it → |
| XII. What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton | 3,834 | 15 min | Check it → |
| XIII. How I Fell in with the Curate | 1,772 | 7 min | Check it → |
| XIV. In London | 3,728 | 14 min | Check it → |
| XV. What Had Happened in Surrey | 2,808 | 11 min | Check it → |
| XVI. The Exodus From London | 4,386 | 17 min | Check it → |
| XVII. The “Thunder Child” | 3,284 | 13 min | Check it → |
| Chapter | Words | Reading time | Practice in Parlor |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. Under Foot | 2,598 | 10 min | Check it → |
| II. What We Saw From the Ruined House | 3,294 | 13 min | Check it → |
| III. The Days of Imprisonment | 1,938 | 7 min | Check it → |
| IV. The Death of the Curate | 1,607 | 6 min | Check it → |
| V. The Stillness | 959 | 4 min | Check it → |
| VI. The Work of Fifteen Days | 1,248 | 5 min | Check it → |
| VII. The Man on Putney Hill | 5,569 | 21 min | Check it → |
| VIII. Dead London | 3,094 | 12 min | Check it → |
| IX. Wreckage | 1,838 | 7 min | Check it → |
| X. The Epilogue | 1,374 | 5 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 War of the Worlds 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 War of the Worlds, Project Gutenberg eBook #36, 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 (18 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.
Similar length
- The Hound of the Baskervilles 3 h 50 min
- The Wind in the Willows 3 h 45 min
- Little Lord Fauntleroy 3 h 45 min
- The Man Who Was Thursday 3 h 40 min
Also by H. G. Wells
- The Invisible Man 3 h 5 min
- The Island of Doctor Moreau 2 h 45 min