How long does it take to read Heat and Dust?
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala takes about 3 hours 19 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 19 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1975. 181 pages, about 49,775 words.
7 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 32 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 19 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 4 minutes |
The page count is the median across 14 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Set in India, HEAT AND DUST is the story of Olivia, a beautiful, spoiled, bored English colonial wife in the 1920s who is drawn inexorably into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in plots and intrigues. Olivia outrages the tiny, suffocating town where her husband is a civil servant by eloping with the captivating Nawab. It is also the story of Olivia's step-granddaughter who, fifty years later, is drawn to India by her fascination with the letters left behind by the now dead older woman, and by her obsession with solving the enigma of Olivia's scandal. A penetrating and compassionate love story, this brilliant novel immerses the reader in the heat, dust, and squalor of India, while providing a compelling mixture of the spiritual and the sensual.
Subjects: Man Booker Prize Winner, Kings and rulers, Married women, India in fiction, British, Fiction
