The Marginalia Press reference
Jane Austen Novels Reading Time Calculator
Pick your reading speed and how long you read each day. All six of Austen's published novels are free to read online, and each shows how many hours, and how many days, it will take you.
Reading time calculator
All six novels take 48 h 16 min at 250 words a minute, from 5 h 09 min (Northanger Abbey) to 10 h 39 min (Mansfield Park).
| Novel | First published | Words | Reading time | Days to finish | Free text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sense and Sensibility | 1811 | 118,900 | 7 h 56 min | 16 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Sense and Sensibility |
| Pride and Prejudice | 1813 | 127,400 | 8 h 30 min | 17 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Pride and Prejudice |
| Mansfield Park | 1814 | 159,700 | 10 h 39 min | 22 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Mansfield Park |
| Emma | 1815 | 157,600 | 10 h 30 min | 21 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Emma |
| Northanger Abbey | 1817 | 77,200 | 5 h 09 min | 11 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Northanger Abbey |
| Persuasion | 1817 | 83,300 | 5 h 33 min | 12 | Read on Project Gutenberg: Persuasion |
Scroll sideways to view every column.
How the numbers work
Reading time is the word count divided by your reading speed. Days to finish is that time divided by the minutes you read each day, rounded up. Most adults read printed fiction at about 200 to 300 words a minute, so the average setting is a fair starting point; change it to match you.
Word counts are measured from each novel's Project Gutenberg plain-text file, with Gutenberg's own licence text removed and the result rounded to the nearest 100. Some of those files include a contents list, illustration captions or a preface, so a printed edition can differ by a few percent.
Order of publication
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815) appeared in Austen's lifetime. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published together after her death, in December 1817. The table is sorted in that order by default; the years shown are first publication.
Free to read, with one caution
Each novel links to its Project Gutenberg record, which states that the text is in the public domain in the USA. That statement is about the USA only, and it covers the text of that edition. Check the rules where you live before sharing or reusing a text.
For our reading route through the six novels, see Jane Austen: a reading route. For release dates and download records of other classics, see the Public-Domain Classics Availability Atlas, and to keep a record of what you finish, use the free classics reading tracker.
Source: Project Gutenberg ebook records and plain-text files, checked 22 October 2026.