How long does it take to read Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays?
Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays by George Orwell takes about 3 hours 53 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 53 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1950. 212 pages, about 58,300 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 29 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 53 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 26 minutes |
The page count is the median across 10 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
'Shooting an Elephant' is Orwell's searing and painfully honest account of his experience as a police officer in imperial Burma; killing an escaped elephant in front of a crowd 'solely to avoid looking a fool'. The other masterly essays in this collection include classics such as 'My Country Right or Left', 'How the Poor Die' and 'Such, Such were the Joys', his memoir of the horrors of public school, as well as discussions of Shakespeare, sleeping rough, boys' weeklies and a spirited defence of English cooking. Opinionated, uncompromising, provocative and hugely entertaining, all show Orwell's unique ability to get to the heart of any subject.
Subjects: Essays, Nonfiction, Autobiography, English essays
