How long does it take to read The Subterraneans?
The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac takes about 2 hours 38 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 2 hours 38 minutes
An evening's read
First published 1958. 144 pages, about 39,600 words.
6 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 4 hours 24 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 2 hours 38 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 1 hour 39 minutes |
The page count is the median across 30 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with an African American woman named Alene Lee (1931-1991) in New York in 1953. In the novel she is renamed "Mardou Fox," and described as a carefree spirit who frequents the jazz clubs and bars of the budding Beat scene of San Francisco. Other well-known personalities and friends from the author's life also appear thinly disguised in the novel. The character Frank Carmody is based on William Burroughs, and Adam Moorad on Allen Ginsberg. Even Gore Vidal appears as successful novelist Arial Lavalina. Kerouac's alter ego is named Leo Percepied, and his long-time friend Neal Cassady is mentioned only in passing as Leroy.
Subjects: Beat Generation, Fiction, Beats (Persons), San francisco (calif.), fiction, American fiction, Generación Beat
