The Pickwick Papers

At a glance

1837 novel by Charles Dickens.

Author

Charles Dickens1812–1870

First published

1836

Original language

English

Genre

Humorous fiction

Readers

Adult

Length

Epic200,000 words or more

Readers' rating

3.5 out of 5from 58 ratings on Hardcover

How long it takes to read

About 20 h 8 min at 250 words a minute, or 32 h 29 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
• Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens255,380 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. 2Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace Thackeray303,896Compare
3. 3A Little LifeHanya Yanagihara303,000Compare
4. 4The Pickwick PapersCharles Dickens302,088
5. 5The Gathering StormRobert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson297,502Compare
6. 6The GoldfinchDonna Tartt296,582Compare
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

300,426

Chapters

8about 37,553 words each

Average sentence

13.2 words

Vocabulary

444 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