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How long does it take to read The Lost Painting?

Jonathan Harr

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr takes about 5 hours 17 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 5 hours 17 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2005. 288 pages, about 79,200 words.

11 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 8 hours 48 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 5 hours 17 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 18 minutes

The page count is the median across 11 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

A decaying palazzo on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome makes a discovery that inspires a search for a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a revolutionary painter beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, in and out of jail, all the while painting transcendent works. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn't alter his violent temperament. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances. Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others--no one knows the precise number--have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten. This quest is a synthesis of history and detective story.--From publisher description

Subjects: Current Events, Attribution, Betrayal, Criticism and interpretation, Nonfiction, Painting, Italian

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