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At a glance
Novel by Robert Erskine Childers.
How long it takes to read
About 7 h 16 min at 250 words a minute, or 11 h 43 min as an audiobook.
| Reading speed | Whole book | At 30 minutes a day |
|---|---|---|
| Careful200 words a minute | 9 h 5 min | 19 days |
| Average250 words a minute | 7 h 16 min | 15 days |
| Fast300 words a minute | 6 h 3 min | 13 days |
The Riddle of the Sands
Read or listen
The Riddle of the Sands is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.
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
- 109,275
- Chapters
- 28about 3,903 words each
- Dialogue
- 31%of the words are inside quotation marks
- Average sentence
- 16.6 words
- Vocabulary
- 465 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 Riddle of the Sands?
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers has 108,945 words.
How long does it take to read The Riddle of the Sands?
About 7 h 16 min at 250 words a minute, or 11 h 43 min as an audiobook.
How many days to read The Riddle of the Sands at 30 minutes a day?
About 15 days at an average reading speed.
Who wrote The Riddle of the Sands?
The Riddle of the Sands was written by Erskine Childers and first published in 1903.
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.