How long does it take to read Lie Down in Darkness?
Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron takes about 7 hours 20 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 20 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1951. 400 pages, about 110,000 words.
15 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 13 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 20 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 35 minutes |
The page count is the median across 20 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The story is set out in the south. The Loftis family members are waiting for the coffin of their daughter Peyton. The novel goes back in time through flashbacks and recollections uncovering truths and events leading to Peyton's suicide. Lie Down In Darkness is a post-modernist novel, a post-war account of the human state, an age of alienation, decay and meaninglessness. Neither society nor family nor religion nor emancipation nor ethics are able to save Peyton from an inevitable death.
Subjects: Fiction, Suicide victims, Young women, Young women -- Fiction, Families, time travel
