How long does it take to read The Betrothed?
Alessandro Manzoni
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni takes about 11 hours 26 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 11 hours 26 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1800. 624 pages, about 171,600 words.
23 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 19 hours 4 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 11 hours 26 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 7 hours 9 minutes |
The page count is the median across 443 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters - the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister 'Unnamed' - in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest European historical novels.
Subjects: Fiction, historical, general, Italy, fiction, Fiction, Italian fiction, Promessi sposi, History
