Heart of Darkness

At a glance

1899 novella by Joseph Conrad.

Author

Joseph Conrad1857–1924

First published

1899

Original language

British English

Genre

Literary fiction

Readers

Adult

Length

Shortunder 40,000 words

Readers' rating

3.4 out of 5from 1,162 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 2 h 34 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 8 min as an audiobook.

More by Joseph Conrad

• NostromoJoseph Conrad170,864 words
• Lord JimJoseph Conrad130,139 words
• The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad93,164 words

All books by Joseph Conrad

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 Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald47,094Compare
6. 6The Fork, the Witch, and the WormChristopher Paolini38,849Compare
7. 7Glinda of OzL. Frank Baum38,799Compare
8. 8Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad38,515
9. 9The Road to OzL. Frank Baum38,406Compare
10. 10Ozma of OzL. Frank Baum38,076Compare

Counted from the text

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

Words in the text

38,515

Average sentence

15.4 words

Vocabulary

453 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
• wikidata.orgdescription and author
• 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