How long does it take to read The Awkward Age?
The Awkward Age by Henry James takes about 7 hours 42 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 42 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1899. 420 pages, about 115,500 words.
16 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 50 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 42 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 49 minutes |
The page count is the median across 64 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Nanda Brookenham is 'coming out' in London society. Thrust suddenly into the vicious, immoral circle that has gathered round her mother, she even finds herself in competition with Mrs Brookenham for the affection of the man she admires. Light and ironic in its touch, The Awkward Age nevertheless analyzes the English character with great subtlety. The Awkward Age, which has been much praised for its natural dialogue and the delicacy of feeling it conveys, exemplifies Conrad's remark that James 'is never in deep gloom or in violent sunshine. But he feels deeply and vividly every delicate shade.' first published as a serial in Harper's Weekly in 1898-1899 and then as a book later in 1899. Originally conceived as a brief, light story about the complications created in her family's social set by a young girl coming of age, the novel expanded into a general treatment of decadence and corruption in English fin de siècle life. James presents the novel almost entirely in dialogue, an experiment that adds to the immediacy of the scenes but also creates serious ambiguities about characters and their motives.
Subjects: Fiction, England in fiction, Mothers and daughters in fiction, Young women in fiction, Young women, Mothers and daughters
