Cover of The Ambassadors

Henry James1903Literary fiction

The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors by Henry James has 164,421 words, about 10 h 58 min of reading.

words
164,421
Reading time
10 h 58 min
Listening time
17 h 41 min

Very long Longer than 78% of the other 735 books here.

Compare with another bookAll books by Henry James

At a glance

1903 novel by Henry James.

Author
Henry James1843–1916
First published
1903
Original language
English
Readers
Adult
Length
Very long120,000 to 200,000 words

How long it takes to read

About 10 h 58 min at 250 words a minute, or 17 h 41 min as an audiobook.

Reading speedWhole bookAt 30 minutes a day
Careful200 words a minute13 h 42 min28 days
Average250 words a minute10 h 58 min22 days
Fast300 words a minute9 h 8 min19 days

The Ambassadors

Read or listen

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

More by Henry James

All books by Henry James

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. 3The Girl with the Dragon TattooStieg Larsson165,392Compare
  4. 4Abaddon's GateJames S. A. Corey165,000Compare
  5. 5The AmbassadorsHenry James164,421
  6. 6Heretics of DuneFrank Herbert163,522Compare
  7. 7One of the Six HundredJames Grant163,383Compare
  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
164,603
Chapters
13about 12,662 words each
Dialogue
30%of the words are inside quotation marks
Average sentence
17.4 words
Vocabulary
412 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 The Ambassadors?

The Ambassadors by Henry James has 164,421 words.

How long does it take to read The Ambassadors?

About 10 h 58 min at 250 words a minute, or 17 h 41 min as an audiobook.

How many days to read The Ambassadors at 30 minutes a day?

About 22 days at an average reading speed.

Who wrote The Ambassadors?

The Ambassadors was written by Henry James and first published in 1903.

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