How long does it take to read History of Animals?
History of Animals by Aristotle takes about 5 hours 59 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 59 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1476. 326 pages, about 89,650 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 58 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 59 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 44 minutes |
The page count is the median across 49 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In History of Animals Aristotle analyzes "differences" -- in parts, activities, modes of life, and character -- across the animal kingdom, in preparation for establishing their causes, which are the concern of his other zoological works. Over 500 species of animals are considered: shellfish, insects, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals -- including human beings. In books I-IV Aristotle gives a comparative survey of internal and external body parts, including tissues and fluids and of sense faculties and voice. Books V-VI study reproductive methods, breeding habits, and embryogenesis as well as some secondary sex differences. In Books VII-IX, Aristotle examines differences among animals in feeding; in habitat, hibernation, migration; in enmities and sociability; in disposition (including differences related to gender) and intelligence. Here too he describes the human reproductive system, conception, pregnancy, and obstetrics. Book X establishes the female's contribution to generation. The Loeb edition of History of Animals is in three volumes. A full index to all ten books is included in Volume Three. D.M. Balme was, at the time of his death, Professor Emeritus of Classics, Queen Mary College, London; his edition of Books VII-X has been prepared for publication by Allan Gotthelf. Aristotle's biological corpus includes not only History of Animals, but also Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, Generation of Animals, and significant parts of On the Soul and Parva Naturalia. Aristotle's general methodology -- "first we must grasp the differences, then try to discover the causes" (HA 1.6) -- is applied to the study of plants by his younger co-worker and heir to his school, Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants studies differences across the plant kingdom, while De Causis Plantarum studies their causes. In the later ancient world, both Pliny's Natural History and Aelian's On the Characteristics of Animals draw significantly on Aristotle's…
Subjects: Pre-Linnean works, Zoology, Zoologie, Dierkunde, Ouvrages prélinnéens, Philosophy, ancient
