Cover of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Laurence Sterne1759Literary fiction

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne has 193,575 words, about 12 h 54 min of reading.

words
193,575
Reading time
12 h 54 min
Listening time
20 h 49 min

Very long Longer than 85% of the other 735 books here.

Compare with another bookAll books by Laurence Sterne

At a glance

Novel by Laurence Sterne.

Author
Laurence Sterne1713–1768
First published
1759
Original language
English
Readers
Adult
Length
Very long120,000 to 200,000 words
Readers' rating
3.9 out of 5from 46 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 12 h 54 min at 250 words a minute, or 20 h 49 min as an audiobook.

Reading speedWhole bookAt 30 minutes a day
Careful200 words a minute16 h 8 min33 days
Average250 words a minute12 h 54 min26 days
Fast300 words a minute10 h 45 min22 days

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Read or listen

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.

Compared with other books

The books closest in length, and a few well-known ones for scale.

  1. 1War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy587,287Compare
  2. 2MurtaghChristopher Paolini194,232Compare
  3. 3The Red and the BlackStendhal193,611Compare
  4. 4The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanLaurence Sterne193,575
  5. 5The Adventures of Roderick RandomT. Smollett191,500Compare
  6. 6Tower of DawnSarah J. Maas191,282Compare
  7. 7The Fellowship of the RingJ. R. R. Tolkien177,227Compare
  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
188,673
Chapters
3about 62,891 words each
Dialogue
5%of the words are inside quotation marks
Vocabulary
424 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 Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne has 193,575 words.

How long does it take to read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?

About 12 h 54 min at 250 words a minute, or 20 h 49 min as an audiobook.

How many days to read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman at 30 minutes a day?

About 26 days at an average reading speed.

Who wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was written by Laurence Sterne and first published in 1759.

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