How long does it take to read The Enchanted Barn?
The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill takes about 5 hours 44 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 44 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1918. 313 pages, about 86,075 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 34 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 44 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 35 minutes |
The page count is the median across 6 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
With four younger siblings to support as well as her invalid mother, since her father died unexpectedly the previous year, Shirley was really up against it. Her tiny secretary's salary could only afford rent for a house that was too small and located in an area with excessive heat, traffic, and pollution. To compound the problems she had been served notice that the family must move in a few weeks. This is why a large stone barn outside the city, in a spacious natural setting with cool, fresh air seemed so inviting. The barn's owner, Sidney, was also up against it in trying to get the barn not only in a habitable, but also in a truly homelike and comfortable state without appearing to be offering charity nor compelling an increase in rent. Shirley completely refused charity of any kind, but was so completely conscientious and loyal in her work, at times jeopardizing her own safety and even risking her life, that abundant help came her way in many forms, leading eventually to property ownership that guaranteed lifetime security for her family. Along the way she taught Sidney the meaning of inner wealth, which is what he really wanted rather than the haughty, condescending, shallow, superficial, undeserving hypocrisy of some of his rich acquaintances. His curiousity about how someone could really live in a barn came to be richly rewarded. Shirley found that her daring bravery in attempting actual life in a barn was also richly rewarded. As she and Sidney discovered what real wealth was, it wasn't only the barn that was enchanted.
