How long does it take to read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State?
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Frederick Engels takes about 3 hours 59 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 59 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1884. 217 pages, about 59,675 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 38 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 59 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 29 minutes |
The page count is the median across 65 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies. Under this patriarchal system, women were servants and, effectively, prostitutes. Only Communism would herald the dawn of communal living and a new sexual freedom and, in turn, the role of the state would become superfluous.
Subjects: History, Property, The State, Primitive societies, Family, Families
