Don Quixote
At your speed≈ 28½ hrs
Pages1072
Audiobook≈ 47½ hrs
Every reading time on the site updates to your pace. Page counts are an estimate, so treat the hours as a good guide, not a stopwatch.
The complete text runs to 427,969 words, counted word for word. At an average 250 words a minute that is 28½ hrs — a week or more of evenings.
Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.86 out of 5, from 551 ratings.
Worth-it score 5.3/10 — Worth it for some readers. Readers 6.2 (Hardcover's 3.86★ from 551 ratings) − length 0.9 = 5.3. How the score works →
How long does it take to read Don Quixote?
The complete text of Don Quixote runs to 427,969 words — about 1072 pages in the edition we list. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:
| Your pace | Words per minute | Time to finish |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 175 | 41 hrs |
| Average | 250 | 28½ hrs |
| Fast | 400 | 18 hrs |
Counted word for word from the complete public-domain text on Project Gutenberg, so these times don't depend on any one edition's page count. Most adults read between 200 and 300 words a minute — set your own pace and every time on the site adjusts. Prefer to listen? At a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute the audiobook runs about 47½ hrs — an estimate from the word count, since narrators vary.
Common questions
- How long does it take to read Don Quixote?
- About 28½ hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. The complete text of Don Quixote runs to 427,969 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 41 hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 18 hrs.
- How many pages is Don Quixote?
- About 1072 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 427,969 words, about 28½ hrs of reading at an average pace.
- Is Don Quixote worth reading?
- We score it 5.3 out of 10 for the time it takes — worth it for some readers. Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.86 out of 5 from 551 ratings, which counts for 6.2; at about 28½ hrs at an average pace it gives back 0.9 for its length.
- How long is the Don Quixote audiobook?
- About 47½ hrs, estimated from the 428,000 words at a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute. Real editions vary by narrator, usually by well under an hour.
From the publisher
Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways.…
While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray—he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants—Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years. With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been generally recognized as the first modern novel. The book has been enormously influential on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible."
Readers also loved
264 pages · 3.62★ on Hardcover