The Book of Dragons

At a glance

Author

E. Nesbit1858–1924

Genre

Science fiction

Readers

Middle grade

Length

Standard40,000 to 80,000 words

How long it takes to read

About 2 h 49 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 33 min as an audiobook.

More by E. Nesbit

• The Railway ChildrenE. Nesbit59,703 words

All books by E. Nesbit

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 Turn of the ScrewHenry James42,795Compare
7. 7The Sorrows of Young WertherJohann Wolfgang von Goethe42,526Compare
8. 8The Book of DragonsE. Nesbit42,271
9. 9Venus in FursLeopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch42,095Compare
10. 10The Country of the Pointed FirsSarah Orne Jewett42,077Compare

Counted from the text

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

Words in the text

42,271

Dialogue

23%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

18.6 words

Vocabulary

378 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

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