How long does it take to read Macbeth?
Macbeth by William Shakespeare takes about 2 hours 30 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 2 hours 30 minutes
An evening's read
First published 1508. 136 pages, about 37,400 words.
5 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 4 hours 9 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 2 hours 30 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 1 hour 34 minutes |
The page count is the median across 1,963 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The play concerns a trusted general who secretly lusts for power. Encouraged by the prophecies of three witches and urged on by his ambitious wife Macbeth commits regicide. Left fearful and superstitious by this desperate act he is driven to a spiralling course of murder and outrage, almost inevitably culminating in his own death. One of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies, Macbeth is ostensibly based on the Scottish king although the story represented in the play bears no relation to historical fact as the true King Macbeth was well respected by his contemporaries. This book includes the hero Macbeth becoming more and more evil after he gets told his "destiny" by the witches and becomes greedy with power.
Subjects: Drama, Regicides, Kings and rulers, Texts, French-Canadian dialect, Scotland
