Cover of The Moon and Sixpence

W. Somerset Maugham1919Literary fiction

The Moon and Sixpence

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham has 74,671 words, about 4 h 59 min of reading.

words
74,671
Reading time
4 h 59 min
Listening time
8 h 2 min

Standard Longer than 35% of the other 735 books here.

Compare with another bookAll books by W. Somerset Maugham

At a glance

1919 novel by W Somerset Maugham.

Author
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965
First published
1919
Original language
British English
Readers
Adult
Length
Standard40,000 to 80,000 words
Readers' rating
3.5 out of 5from 52 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 4 h 59 min at 250 words a minute, or 8 h 2 min as an audiobook.

Reading speedWhole bookAt 30 minutes a day
Careful200 words a minute6 h 13 min13 days
Average250 words a minute4 h 59 min10 days
Fast300 words a minute4 h 9 min9 days

The Moon and Sixpence

Read or listen

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

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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. 5A Romantic Young LadyRobert Grant74,772Compare
  6. 6SteppenwolfHermann Hesse74,705Compare
  7. 7The Moon and SixpenceW. Somerset Maugham74,671
  8. 8An Old Man's LoveAnthony Trollope74,598Compare
  9. 9Winesburg, OhioSherwood Anderson74,021Compare
  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
75,011
Chapters
58about 1,293 words each
Dialogue
29%of the words are inside quotation marks
Average sentence
14 words
Vocabulary
420 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 Moon and Sixpence?

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham has 74,671 words.

How long does it take to read The Moon and Sixpence?

About 4 h 59 min at 250 words a minute, or 8 h 2 min as an audiobook.

How many days to read The Moon and Sixpence at 30 minutes a day?

About 10 days at an average reading speed.

Who wrote The Moon and Sixpence?

The Moon and Sixpence was written by W. Somerset Maugham and first published in 1919.

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