How long does it take to read Moby Dick?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville takes about 8 hours 18 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 8 hours 18 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1851. 453 pages, about 124,575 words.
17 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 13 hours 51 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 8 hours 18 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 11 minutes |
The page count is the median across 1,125 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale."
Subjects: American Sea stories, Mentally ill, Whaling, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Whales, Captain Ahab (Fictitious character)
