How long does it take to read Anna Karenina?
Leo Tolstoy · Garnett translation
At an average reading speed of 250 words a minute, Anna Karenina takes about 23 hours to read. As an audiobook, expect about 38 hours at 1x.
Anna Karenina is long, but its 239 chapters are short: about six minutes each on average. That makes it one of the easier big novels to read a little at a time. It's a little under two-thirds the length of War and Peace.
Average is about 250 WPM. Measure yours in two minutes and every time on this page recalculates.
How much to read a day
At 250 words a minute, to finish the book:
Have a deadline in mind? The pages-per-day calculator works it out for any date.
How we measured it
Method: counted text. We used the Project Gutenberg text (#1399), Constance Garnett's translation, from Part One, Chapter 1 to the end. Word counts differ between translations.
Part of our study of the 100 most popular books, last checked November 2026. Reading times assume steady reading; editions, translations and your own pace all move them.
See how long it really takes you
Log it in Parch as you read. It tracks your pages, sessions and streak, so you'll know your real pace, and how long the next one will take.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read Anna Karenina?
About 23 hours at an average reading speed of 250 words a minute: 29 hours at 200 and 19 hours at 300.
How many words are in Anna Karenina?
349,538 words.
How many pages a day to finish Anna Karenina in a month?
About 43 pages a day, or 47m of reading a day at an average pace. That assumes about 1,271 pages at 275 words a page; real page counts vary by edition.
How many chapters does Anna Karenina have?
239, in eight parts. They average under 1,500 words, about six minutes of reading each.
Is Anna Karenina shorter than War and Peace?
Yes. In the translations we counted, Anna Karenina is 349,538 words and War and Peace is 562,203, so Anna Karenina takes about 14 fewer hours.