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At a glance
1898 novella by Henry James.
- Author
- Henry James1843–1916
- First published
- 1898
- Original language
- English
- Genre
- Gothic fiction
- Readers
- Adult
- Length
- Standard40,000 to 80,000 words
- Readers' rating
- 3.2 out of 5from 437 ratings on Hardcover
How long it takes to read
About 2 h 51 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 36 min as an audiobook.
| Reading speed | Whole book | At 30 minutes a day |
|---|---|---|
| Careful200 words a minute | 3 h 34 min | 8 days |
| Average250 words a minute | 2 h 51 min | 6 days |
| Fast300 words a minute | 2 h 23 min | 5 days |
The Turn of the Screw
Read or listen
The Turn of the Screw is in the public domain: these editions are free to download, read and share.
More by Henry James
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
- 42,836
- Dialogue
- 22%of the words are inside quotation marks
- Average sentence
- 16.6 words
- Vocabulary
- 417 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 Turn of the Screw?
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has 42,795 words.
How long does it take to read The Turn of the Screw?
About 2 h 51 min at 250 words a minute, or 4 h 36 min as an audiobook.
How many days to read The Turn of the Screw at 30 minutes a day?
About 6 days at an average reading speed.
Who wrote The Turn of the Screw?
The Turn of the Screw was written by Henry James and first published in 1898.
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.