# The Mayor of Casterbridge

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy has 116,305 words.

## At a glance

1886 novel by Thomas Hardy.

- **Author:** [Thomas Hardy](https://musael.com/books/authors/thomas-hardy.md) (1840–1928)
- **First published:** 1886
- **Original language:** English
- **Genre:** literary fiction
- **Readers:** adult

## How long it takes to read

- **Words:** 116,305
- **Reading time:** 7 h 45 min (at 250 words a minute)
- **Listening time:** 12 h 30 min (audiobook pace, 155 words a minute)

| Reading speed | Whole book | At 30 minutes a day |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 200 wpm | 9 h 42 min | 20 days |
| 250 wpm | 7 h 45 min | 16 days |
| 300 wpm | 6 h 28 min | 13 days |

## Read or listen

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

- Standard Ebooks: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-hardy/the-mayor-of-casterbridge
- Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/143

## Counted from the text

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

- Words in the text: 116,379
- Dialogue: 30% of the words are inside quotation marks
- Average sentence: 17 words

## Where the numbers come from

The word count comes from the sources below.

- https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-hardy/the-mayor-of-casterbridge (word count)
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/143 (word count)
- https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2343169
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mayor_of_Casterbridge
- https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8193406W
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/143

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

Source: https://musael.com/books/the-mayor-of-casterbridge