# Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has 38,515 words.

## At a glance

1899 novella by Joseph Conrad.

- **Author:** [Joseph Conrad](https://musael.com/books/authors/joseph-conrad.md) (1857–1924)
- **First published:** 1899
- **Original language:** British English
- **Genre:** literary fiction
- **Readers:** adult

## How long it takes to read

- **Words:** 38,515
- **Reading time:** 2 h 34 min (at 250 words a minute)
- **Listening time:** 4 h 8 min (audiobook pace, 155 words a minute)

| Reading speed | Whole book | At 30 minutes a day |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 200 wpm | 3 h 13 min | 7 days |
| 250 wpm | 2 h 34 min | 6 days |
| 300 wpm | 2 h 8 min | 5 days |

## Read or listen

Heart of Darkness is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.

- Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/219
- LibriVox audiobook (4 h 10 min): https://librivox.org/heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-conrad

## 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

## Where the numbers come from

The word count comes from the sources below.

- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/219 (word count)
- https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q129778
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness
- https://openlibrary.org/works/OL38663W
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/219

Checked on 2026-10-27. Page counts change from edition to edition.

Source: https://musael.com/books/heart-of-darkness