How many pages is Moby-Dick?

About 549 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 214,366 words, about 14½ hrs of reading at an average pace.

Is Moby-Dick worth reading?

We score it 4.7 out of 10 for the time it takes — a hard sell for the time. Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.63 out of 5 from 979 ratings, which counts for 5.2; at about 14½ hrs at an average pace it gives back 0.5 for its length.

How long is the Moby-Dick audiobook?

About 24 hrs, estimated from the 214,000 words at a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute. Real editions vary by narrator, usually by well under an hour.

Find a copy Listen on Audible · ≈24 hrs

Moby-Dick

Name: Moby-Dick
Author: Herman Melville

Herman Melville

14½ hrsto read

4.7worth it

At your speed≈ 14½ hrs

Pages549

Audiobook≈ 24 hrs

Times shown for 250 words a minute (average)

The complete text runs to 214,366 words, counted word for word. At an average 250 words a minute that is 14½ hrs — a week or more of evenings.

Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.63 out of 5, from 979 ratings.

Worth-it score 4.7/10 — A hard sell for the time. Readers 5.2 (Hardcover's 3.63★ from 979 ratings) − length 0.5 = 4.7. How the score works →

How long does it take to read Moby-Dick?

The complete text of Moby-Dick runs to 214,366 words — about 549 pages in the edition we list. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:

Estimated reading time for Moby-Dick at three reading speeds.
Your pace	Words per minute	Time to finish
Slow	175	20½ hrs
Average	250	14½ hrs
Fast	400	9 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 24 hrs — an estimate from the word count, since narrators vary.

Common questions

How long does it take to read Moby-Dick?: About 14½ hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. The complete text of Moby-Dick runs to 214,366 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 20½ hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 9 hrs.
How many pages is Moby-Dick?: About 549 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 214,366 words, about 14½ hrs of reading at an average pace.
Is Moby-Dick worth reading?: We score it 4.7 out of 10 for the time it takes — a hard sell for the time. Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.63 out of 5 from 979 ratings, which counts for 5.2; at about 14½ hrs at an average pace it gives back 0.5 for its length.
How long is the Moby-Dick audiobook?: About 24 hrs, estimated from the 214,000 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

"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow — Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession — the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of…

vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale." Key letters from Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne are printed at the end of this volume.

American Sea storiesMentally illWhalingScience Fiction & FantasyWhalesgreat_books_of_the_western_worldLiteratureCaptain Ahab (Fictitious character)