Cover of Black Beauty

Anna Sewell1877Historical fiction

Black Beauty

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell has 59,726 words, about 3 h 59 min of reading.

words
59,726
Reading time
3 h 59 min
Listening time
6 h 25 min

Standard Longer than 23% of the other 735 books here.

Compare with another bookAll books by Anna Sewell

At a glance

1877 novel by Anna Sewell.

Author
Anna Sewell1820–1878
First published
1877
Original language
English
Length
Standard40,000 to 80,000 words
Readers' rating
4.3 out of 5from 23 ratings on Open Library

How long it takes to read

About 3 h 59 min at 250 words a minute, or 6 h 25 min as an audiobook.

Reading speedWhole bookAt 30 minutes a day
Careful200 words a minute4 h 59 min10 days
Average250 words a minute3 h 59 min8 days
Fast300 words a minute3 h 19 min7 days

Black Beauty

Read or listen

Black Beauty is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.

Compared with other books

The books closest in length, and a few well-known ones for scale.

  1. 1War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy587,287Compare
  2. 2The Fellowship of the RingJ. R. R. Tolkien177,227Compare
  3. 3Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen121,970Compare
  4. 4Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJ. K. Rowling76,944Compare
  5. 5The War of the WorldsH. G. Wells59,828Compare
  6. 6Four: A Divergent CollectionVeronica Roth59,727Compare
  7. 7Black BeautyAnna Sewell59,726
  8. 8The Railway ChildrenE. Nesbit59,703Compare
  9. 9Whose Body? A Lord Peter Wimsey NovelDorothy L. Sayers59,554Compare
  10. 10The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald47,094Compare

Counted from the text

Automated estimates from the selected Project Gutenberg text; it may include a preface or notes.

Words in the text
59,964
Chapters
7about 8,566 words each
Dialogue
41%of the words are inside quotation marks
Average sentence
23.2 words
Vocabulary
379 different words in every 1,000Distinct words in the sampled text; this does not measure writing quality.

Where the numbers come from

The word count comes from the sources below.

The word count is Standard Ebooks’ count of its edition; the figures under “Counted from the text” are Musael’s own count of the Project Gutenberg text.

Checked on 2026-10-27. Page counts change from edition to edition. Cover from Open Library; the edition shown may differ.

Questions

How many words is Black Beauty?

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell has 59,726 words.

How long does it take to read Black Beauty?

About 3 h 59 min at 250 words a minute, or 6 h 25 min as an audiobook.

How many days to read Black Beauty at 30 minutes a day?

About 8 days at an average reading speed.

Who wrote Black Beauty?

Black Beauty was written by Anna Sewell and first published in 1877.

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