The Mystery of Edwin Drood

At a glance

Monthly serial; final and unfinished novel by Charles Dickens; published 1870.

Author

Charles Dickens1812–1870

First published

1870

Original language

English

Genre

Mystery

Readers

Adult

Length

Long80,000 to 120,000 words

Readers' rating

3.8 out of 5from 26 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 6 h 24 min at 250 words a minute, or 10 h 19 min as an audiobook.

More by Charles Dickens

• Bleak HouseCharles Dickens355,432 words
• Dombey and SonCharles Dickens351,353 words
• David CopperfieldCharles Dickens339,112 words
• Little DorritCharles Dickens339,059 words
• Martin ChuzzlewitCharles Dickens337,951 words
• Our Mutual FriendCharles Dickens326,054 words
• Nicholas NicklebyCharles Dickens325,379 words
• The Pickwick PapersCharles Dickens302,088 words

All books by Charles Dickens

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. 4Never Let Me GoKazuo Ishiguro96,374Compare
5. 5Ann VeronicaH. G. Wells96,161Compare
6. 6The Mystery of Edwin DroodCharles Dickens95,978
7. 7The Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle95,478Compare
8. 8BelovedToni Morrison95,418Compare
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

96,181

Chapters

23about 4,182 words each

Dialogue

42%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

14.1 words

Vocabulary

431 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.

• standardebooks.orgword count
• gutenberg.orgword count
• openlibrary.orgcover and record
• wikidata.orgdescription and author
• hardcover.appreaders' rating

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