How long does it take to read Moby-Dick?
Herman Melville
At an average reading speed of 250 words a minute, Moby-Dick takes 13 hours 54 minutes to read. As an audiobook, expect about 22 hours at 1x.
Moby-Dick is long, but its 135 chapters are short, and many are self-contained essays on whales and whaling. Readers who stall usually do it in the cetology chapters; the plot picks up again after them.
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 (#2701), from "Call me Ishmael" through the Epilogue. Melville's opening Etymology and Extracts, another 3,595 words, aren't included.
Part of our study of the 100 most popular books, last checked October 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 Moby-Dick?
About 14 hours at an average reading speed of 250 words a minute: 17 hours at 200 and 12 hours at 300.
How many words are in Moby-Dick?
208,427 words.
How many pages a day to finish Moby-Dick in a month?
About 26 pages a day, or 28m of reading a day at an average pace. That assumes about 758 pages at 275 words a page; real page counts vary by edition.
How many chapters does Moby-Dick have?
135, plus an epilogue. They average about 1,500 words, so most take six minutes or so.
Can I skip the whaling chapters?
Some readers do, and the story still makes sense. But they're a large part of what the book is, and many are short.