READING TIME · WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY · 1848

How long does it take to read Vanity Fair?

At an average reading speed, about 19 hours 20 minutes. Vanity Fair is 301,483 words long, in 67 chapters.

WORDS: 301,483
CHAPTERS: 67
READING LEVEL: About grade 9 (Flesch–Kincaid)

Reading time at different speeds

Total reading time for Vanity Fair at three reading speeds
Reader	Speed	Whole book
Unhurried	200 words a minute	25 h 5 min
Average adult reader	260 words a minute	19 h 20 min
Quick reader	320 words a minute	15 h 40 min

To finish it at a steady pace:

20 minutes a day: about 58 days
30 minutes a day: about 39 days
60 minutes a day: about 20 days

How many chapters are in Vanity Fair?

Vanity Fair has 67 chapters. The longest is Chapter 25 (8,088 words, 31 min); the shortest is Chapter 10 (2,481 words, 10 min). The average chapter takes 17 min.

Reading times below are at 260 words a minute.

Words and reading time for each chapter of Vanity Fair
Chapter	Words	Reading time	Practice in Parlor
Chapter 1	2,676	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 2	3,877	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 3	2,932	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 4	5,180	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 5	4,345	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 6	5,076	20 min	Check it →
Chapter 7	3,188	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 8	3,819	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 9	2,967	11 min	Check it →
Chapter 10	2,481	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 11	6,095	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 12	3,477	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 13	4,877	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 14	7,408	28 min	Check it →
Chapter 15	3,483	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 16	3,495	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 17	3,420	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 18	5,040	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 19	4,343	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 20	4,164	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 21	3,826	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 22	3,627	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 23	2,601	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 24	5,662	22 min	Check it →
Chapter 25	8,088	31 min	Check it →
Chapter 26	3,289	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 27	2,670	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 28	3,893	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 29	5,523	21 min	Check it →
Chapter 30	4,118	16 min	Check it →
Chapter 31	4,858	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 32	6,880	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 33	4,347	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 34	7,070	27 min	Check it →
Chapter 35	4,644	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 36	3,587	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 37	6,282	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 38	6,172	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 39	3,850	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 40	3,579	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 41	4,960	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 42	3,140	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 43	3,998	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 44	4,372	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 45	3,809	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 46	3,520	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 47	3,635	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 48	4,791	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 49	3,146	12 min	Check it →
Chapter 50	3,828	15 min	Check it →
Chapter 51	7,626	29 min	Check it →
Chapter 52	4,299	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 53	3,726	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 54	3,733	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 55	6,341	24 min	Check it →
Chapter 56	5,059	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 57	3,561	14 min	Check it →
Chapter 58	4,857	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 59	4,607	18 min	Check it →
Chapter 60	2,489	10 min	Check it →
Chapter 61	5,907	23 min	Check it →
Chapter 62	4,398	17 min	Check it →
Chapter 63	4,928	19 min	Check it →
Chapter 64	6,815	26 min	Check it →
Chapter 65	3,339	13 min	Check it →
Chapter 66	6,387	25 min	Check it →
Chapter 67	7,303	28 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 Vanity Fair 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 Vanity Fair 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 Vanity Fair, Project Gutenberg eBook #599, 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 (20.1 words) and word length. It measures how long the sentences and words are, not how hard the ideas are.

Similar length

The Pickwick Papers 19 h 40 min
Middlemarch 20 h 20 min
Nicholas Nickleby 21 h 5 min
Our Mutual Friend 21 h 30 min

All reading times →