Dead Souls

At a glance

1842 novel by Nikolai Gogol.

Author

Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol1809–1852

First published

1842

Original language

Russian

Genre

Humorous fiction

Readers

Adult

Length

Very long120,000 to 200,000 words

How long it takes to read

About 9 h 27 min at 250 words a minute, or 15 h 14 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. 3LinnetGrant Allen142,612Compare
4. 4The Return of the NativeThomas Hardy142,451Compare
5. 5Dead SoulsNikolai Vasilevich Gogol141,650
6. 6Foundation and EarthIsaac Asimov141,118Compare
7. 7Chapterhouse: DuneFrank Herbert141,078Compare
8. 8Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen121,970Compare
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

141,998

Chapters

15about 9,467 words each

Dialogue

37%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

20 words

Vocabulary

454 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.

• standardebooks.orgword count
• gutenberg.orgword count
• openlibrary.orgcover and record
• wikidata.orgdescription and author
• hardcover.appreaders' rating

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