Cruel as the Grave

At a glance

Author

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth1819–1899

Genre

Romance

Readers

Adult

Length

Long80,000 to 120,000 words

How long it takes to read

About 7 h 17 min at 250 words a minute, or 11 h 44 min as an audiobook.

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. 4The Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoTaylor Jenkins Reid109,893Compare
5. 5Howards EndE. M. Forster109,502Compare
6. 6Cruel as the GraveEmma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth109,191
7. 7Thud!Terry Pratchett109,085Compare
8. 8Season of StormsAndrzej Sapkowski109,000Compare
9. 9Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJ. K. Rowling76,944Compare
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

109,191

Chapters

35about 3,120 words each

Dialogue

51%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

15 words

Vocabulary

420 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.

• gutenberg.orgword count
• openlibrary.orgcover and record
• hardcover.appreaders' rating

The word count is Musael’s own count of the Project Gutenberg text, which can include a preface or notes.

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

Questions