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How long does it take to read Paradise Lost?

John Milton

Paradise Lost by John Milton takes about 6 hours 6 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 6 hours 6 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1667. 333 pages, about 91,575 words.

13 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 10 hours 11 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 6 hours 6 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 49 minutes

The page count is the median across 475 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love. Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.

Content warnings (AI-checked, may be incomplete)
  • violence
  • sexual content
  • war

How these are chosen

Subjects: Bible, Biography, Criticism and interpretation, Devil, English Christian poetry, English Epic poetry

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