The Sound and the Fury
At your speed≈ 6½ hrs
Pages274
Audiobook≈ 11 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 96,787 words, counted word for word. At an average 250 words a minute that is 6½ hrs — a weekend's reading.
Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.80 out of 5, from 328 ratings.
Worth-it score 6.0/10 — Worth it for some readers. Readers 6.0 (Hardcover's 3.80★ from 328 ratings) + length 0.0 = 6.0. How the score works →
How long does it take to read The Sound and the Fury?
The complete text of The Sound and the Fury runs to 96,787 words — about 274 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 | 9 hrs |
| Average | 250 | 6½ hrs |
| Fast | 400 | 4 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 11 hrs — an estimate from the word count, since narrators vary.
Common questions
- How long does it take to read The Sound and the Fury?
- About 6½ hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. The complete text of The Sound and the Fury runs to 96,787 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 9 hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 4 hrs.
- How many pages is The Sound and the Fury?
- About 274 pages, though editions of a book this old vary a great deal — which is why its reading time comes from the complete text instead: 96,787 words, about 6½ hrs of reading at an average pace.
- Is The Sound and the Fury worth reading?
- We score it 6.0 out of 10 for the time it takes — worth it for some readers. Readers on Hardcover rate it 3.80 out of 5 from 328 ratings, which counts for 6.0; at about 6½ hrs at an average pace its length neither adds nor takes away.
- How long is The Sound and the Fury audiobook?
- About 11 hrs, estimated from the 97,000 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
The tragedy of the Compson family features some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant.…
Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
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