How long does it take to read Sunset Song?
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon takes about 5 hours 17 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 17 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1933. 288 pages, about 79,200 words.
11 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 8 hours 48 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 17 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 18 minutes |
The page count is the median across 26 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Divided between her love of the land and the brutal harshness of farming life, young Chris Guthrie finally chooses to stay in the rural community of her childhood. Yet the First World War and the economic and social changes that follow make her a widow and mock the efforts of her youth. But although the days of the small crofter are over, Chris symbolises and intuitive strength which, like the land itself, endures despite everything. Sunset Song is the first and most celebrated book of Grassic Gibbon's great trilogy, A Scot's Quair. It provides a powerful description of the first two decades of the century through the evocation of change and the lyrical intensity of its prose. It is hard to think of any other Scottish novel this century which has received wider acclaim and better epitomises the feeling of a nation.
Subjects: Fiction, Social life and customs, Crofters, Chris Guthrie (Fictitious character), Social conditions, Mothers and sons