How long does it take to read War with the Newts?
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek takes about 5 hours 40 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 40 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1936. 309 pages, about 84,975 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 27 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 40 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 32 minutes |
The page count is the median across 75 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Originally written in 1936, two years before Capek's death and three years before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, War with the Newts is considered by many to be Capek's greatest book. Working in the "fantastic" satiric tradition of Wells, Orwell, and Vonnegut, Capek chronicles the discovery of a colony of highly intelligent giant salamanders off the coast of an Indonesian island. Capek sardonically details all the reactions of the civilized world - from horror to skepticism, from intellectual fascination to mercantile opportunism - and the ultimate destruction from which it (and the newts) might not escape.
Subjects: Czech Science fiction, Salamanders, Fiction, Science fiction, FICTION / Science Fiction / General, Allegories
