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How long does it take to read Gulliver's Travels?

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift takes about 5 hours 6 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 5 hours 6 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1726. 278 pages, about 76,450 words. Written for children.

11 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 8 hours 30 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 5 hours 6 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 11 minutes

The page count is the median across 1,810 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

A parody of traveler’s tales and a satire of human nature, “Gulliver’s Travels” is Jonathan Swift’s most famous work which was first published in 1726. An immensely popular tale ever since its original publication, “Gulliver’s Travels” is the story of its titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, a man who loves to travel. A series of four journeys are detailed in which Gulliver finds himself in a number of amusing and precarious situations. In the first voyage, Gulliver is imprisoned by a race of tiny people, the Lilliputians, when following a shipwreck he is washed upon the shores of their island country. In his second voyage Gulliver finds himself abandoned in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, where he is exhibited for their amusement. In his third voyage, Gulliver once again finds himself marooned; fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics. He subsequently travels to the surrounding lands of Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan. Finally in his last voyage, when he is set adrift by a mutinous crew, he finds himself in the curious Country of the Houyhnhnms. Through the various experiences of Gulliver, Swift brilliantly satirizes the political and cultural environment of his time in addition to creating a lasting and enchanting tale of fantasy. This edition is illustrated by Milo Winter and includes an introduction by George R. Dennis.

Content warnings (AI-checked, may be incomplete)
  • violence
  • war

How these are chosen

Subjects: YA, Young adult, Juvenile, Fiction, Fantasy, Utopias

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