The Thirty-Nine Steps

At a glance

Author

John Buchan1875–1940

Genre

Thriller

Readers

Adult

Length

Standard40,000 to 80,000 words

Readers' rating

3.7 out of 5from 27 ratings on Open Library

How long it takes to read

About 2 h 44 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 25 min as an audiobook.

More by John Buchan

• Mr. StandfastJohn Buchan128,466 words

All books by John Buchan

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. 5The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald47,094Compare
6. 6The Marvelous Land of OzL. Frank Baum41,108Compare
7. 7Men Without WomenErnest Hemingway41,052Compare
8. 8The Thirty-Nine StepsJohn Buchan41,003
9. 9Dorothy and the Wizard in OzL. Frank Baum40,875Compare
10. 10EdgedancerBrandon Sanderson40,660Compare

Counted from the text

Automated estimates from the selected Project Gutenberg text; it may include a preface or notes.

Words in the text

41,109

Chapters

10about 4,111 words each

Dialogue

23%of the words are inside quotation marks

Average sentence

15.6 words

Vocabulary

436 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