How long does it take to read That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana?
Carlo Emilio Gadda
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda takes about 7 hours 7 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 7 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1957. 388 pages, about 106,700 words.
15 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 11 hours 51 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 7 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 27 minutes |
The page count is the median across 16 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are committed within a matter of days: a burglary, in which a good deal of money and precious jewels are taken, and a murder, as a young woman whose husband is out of town is found with her throat cut. Called in to investigate, melancholy Detective Ciccio, a secret admirer of the murdered woman and a friend of her husband's, discovers that almost everyone in the apartment building is somehow involved in the case, and with each new development the mystery only deepens and broadens. Gadda's sublimely different detective story presents a scathing picture of fascist Italy while tracking the elusiveness of the truth, the impossibility of proof, and the infinite complexity of the workings of fate, showing how they come into conflict with the demands of justice and love.
Subjects: Fiction, History, Italian Detective and mystery stories, Italy, Italy in fiction, Italian fiction
