How many pages is The Idiot?

About 784 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 243,818 words, about 16½ hrs of reading at an average pace.

Is The Idiot worth reading?

We score it 6.4 out of 10 for the time it takes — worth it for some readers. Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.05 out of 5 from 436 ratings, which counts for 7.0; at about 16½ hrs at an average pace it gives back 0.6 for its length.

How long is The Idiot audiobook?

About 27 hrs, estimated from the 244,000 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 · ≈27 hrs

The Idiot

Name: The Idiot
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

16½ hrsto read

6.4worth it

At your speed≈ 16½ hrs

Pages784

Audiobook≈ 27 hrs

Times shown for 250 words a minute (average)

The complete text runs to 243,818 words, counted word for word. At an average 250 words a minute that is 16½ hrs — a week or more of evenings.

Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.05 out of 5, from 436 ratings.

Worth-it score 6.4/10 — Worth it for some readers. Readers 7.0 (Hardcover's 4.05★ from 436 ratings) − length 0.6 = 6.4. How the score works →

How long does it take to read The Idiot?

The complete text of The Idiot runs to 243,818 words — about 784 pages in the edition we list. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:

Estimated reading time for The Idiot at three reading speeds.
Your pace	Words per minute	Time to finish
Slow	175	23 hrs
Average	250	16½ hrs
Fast	400	10 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 27 hrs — an estimate from the word count, since narrators vary.

Common questions

How long does it take to read The Idiot?: About 16½ hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. The complete text of The Idiot runs to 243,818 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 23 hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 10 hrs.
How many pages is The Idiot?: About 784 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 243,818 words, about 16½ hrs of reading at an average pace.
Is The Idiot worth reading?: We score it 6.4 out of 10 for the time it takes — worth it for some readers. Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.05 out of 5 from 436 ratings, which counts for 7.0; at about 16½ hrs at an average pace it gives back 0.6 for its length.
How long is The Idiot audiobook?: About 27 hrs, estimated from the 244,000 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

Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Dostoyevsky set out to create a protagonist with "a truly beautiful soul" and to trace the fate of such an individual as he comes into contact with the brutal reality of contemporary society.…

The novel begins when the innocent epileptic Prince Myshkin - the 'idiot' - arrives in St Petersburg and finds himself drawn into a web of violent and passionate relationships that leads to blackmail, betrayal and eventually murder.

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