Moby-Dick
At your speed≈ 11 hrs
Pages549
Audiobook≈ 18½ hrs
549 pages works out to roughly 165,000 words. At an average 250 words a minute that is 11 hrs — about a week of evenings.
Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.61 out of 5, from 910 ratings.
How long does it take to read Moby-Dick?
Moby-Dick is 549 pages, or roughly 165,000 words. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:
| Your pace | Words per minute | Time to finish |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 175 | 15½ hrs |
| Average | 250 | 11 hrs |
| Fast | 400 | 7 hrs |
Estimated at about 300 words per page. Most adults read between 200 and 300 words a minute — use the reading-speed control to set your own pace and every time on the site adjusts.
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.
Common questions
- How long does it take to read Moby-Dick?
- About 11 hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. Moby-Dick runs 549 pages, roughly 165,000 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 15½ hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 7 hrs.
- How many pages is Moby-Dick?
- 549 pages, which is about 165,000 words and 11 hrs of reading. Editions vary, so we take the figure two of our three sources agree on.
- Is Moby-Dick worth reading?
- Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.61 out of 5, from 910 ratings. What we can tell you for certain is the cost: 549 pages and about 11 hrs of your time, or 7 hrs if you read quickly. Whether that is worth it depends on the hours you have.
- How long is the Moby-Dick audiobook?
- About 18½ hrs, estimated from the 165,000 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.
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