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At a glance
1878 novel by Thomas Hardy.
- Author
- Thomas Hardy1840–1928
- First published
- 1878
- Original language
- English
- Genre
- Romance
- Readers
- Adult
- Length
- Very long120,000 to 200,000 words
- Readers' rating
- 3.7 out of 5from 50 ratings on Hardcover
How long it takes to read
About 9 h 30 min at 250 words a minute, or 15 h 19 min as an audiobook.
| Reading speed | Whole book | At 30 minutes a day |
|---|---|---|
| Careful200 words a minute | 11 h 52 min | 24 days |
| Average250 words a minute | 9 h 30 min | 19 days |
| Fast300 words a minute | 7 h 55 min | 16 days |
The Return of the Native
Read or listen
The Return of the Native is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.
More by Thomas Hardy
Compared with other books
The books closest in length, and a few well-known ones for scale.
Counted from the text
Automated estimates from the selected Project Gutenberg text; it may include a preface or notes.
- Words in the text
- 142,774
- Chapters
- 6about 23,796 words each
- Dialogue
- 39%of the words are inside quotation marks
- Average sentence
- 15.3 words
- Vocabulary
- 438 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
How many words is The Return of the Native?
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy has 142,451 words.
How long does it take to read The Return of the Native?
About 9 h 30 min at 250 words a minute, or 15 h 19 min as an audiobook.
How many days to read The Return of the Native at 30 minutes a day?
About 19 days at an average reading speed.
Who wrote The Return of the Native?
The Return of the Native was written by Thomas Hardy and first published in 1878.
Writing a book of your own?
Musael counts every chapter as you write, keeps the plan beside the draft and checks names and facts across the book.