How long does it take to read A Severed Head?
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch takes about 4 hours 33 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 33 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1961. 248 pages, about 68,200 words.
10 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 35 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 33 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 51 minutes |
The page count is the median across 65 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Martin Lynch-Gibbon believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. As his Medusa informs him, 'this is nothing to do with happiness'.
Subjects: Man-woman relationships, Fiction, relationships, love, marriage, friends and lovers
