How long does it take to read The Hours?
The Hours by Michael Cunningham takes about 4 hours 13 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 13 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1998. 230 pages, about 63,250 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 2 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 13 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 38 minutes |
The page count is the median across 38 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A daring, deeply affecting third novel by the author of A Home at the End of the World and Flesh and Blood. In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Richard, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family. Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, this is Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date.
Subjects: Fiction, Man-woman relationships, Man-woman relationships in fiction, Women in fiction, Influence, Women
