How long does it take to read Hamlet?
Hamlet by William Shakespeare takes about 3 hours 31 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 31 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1603. 192 pages, about 52,800 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 52 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 31 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 12 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2,377 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In this quintessential Shakespeare tragedy, a young prince's halting pursuit of revenge for the murder of his father unfolds in a series of highly charged confrontations that have held audiences spellbound for nearly four centuries. Those fateful exchanges, and the anguished soliloquies that precede and follow them, probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any art. The title role of Hamlet, perhaps the most demanding in all of Western drama, has provided generations of leading actors their greatest challenge. Yet all the roles in this towering drama are superbly delineated, and each of the key scenes offers actors a rare opportunity to create theatrical magic. Hamlet is a unique pleasure to read as well as to see and hear performed.
Subjects: performing arts, Stage history, Reyes, reinas, soberanos, Venganza, History and criticism, Criticism and interpretation
