How Long Does It Take to Read Anna Karenina?
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878) runs about 350,000 words — roughly 864 pages in a standard paperback. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that is 24 hours and 31 minutes of reading. The tables below break it down by pace and by daily reading sessions, and you can calculate reading time for any book or test how well you know this one with the Anna Karenina book quiz.
Reading time by speed
| Reading pace | Time to finish Anna Karenina |
|---|---|
| Slow (150 wpm) | 38 hours and 53 minutes |
| Average (238 wpm) | 24 hours and 31 minutes |
| Fast (350 wpm) | 16 hours and 40 minutes |
| Speed reader (450 wpm) | 12 hours and 58 minutes |
Reading in daily sessions
Prefer a nightly page goal? Here is how long the book lasts as a daily habit:
| Session length | Days to finish |
|---|---|
| 15 minutes per day | 99 days |
| 30 minutes per day | 50 days |
| 60 minutes per day | 25 days |
Where the numbers come from
The average adult reads 238 words per minute for non-fiction and around 238–300 wpm for easy fiction, according to Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 reading-rate studies — the number most reading-time tools use. Anna Karenina’s word count (350,000) is an estimate for a standard text or translation; translations and editions vary, so treat both word and page counts as planning figures. For a custom edition or your own pace, the reading time calculator does the math for any word count.
Is Anna Karenina hard to read?
Hard — long, two interleaved plots, many characters named similarly.
Tolstoy's 1878 novel of two marriages in parallel: Anna's ruinous love for the officer Vronsky, and Levin's patient courtship of Kitty in the countryside. It opens with one of the most famous first sentences in fiction. Think you know it already? Take the Anna Karenina book quiz — eight questions, two minutes — or see how you do on the full mixed-classics book quiz.
A realistic pace plan for Anna Karenina
Numbers help, but habits finish books. At 30 minutes a day — one coffee break or one commute — you are done in 50 days. Prefer the one-sitting test? You would need about 24 hours and 31 minutes in a single stretch, which most readers split over a weekend. And if you read 86 pages a night, the book lasts roughly 11 nights — the point is that a 864-page classic shrinks fast once the session is fixed. Readers who finish long books almost never “find time”; they pick the session size first and let the days accumulate.
Your pace may vary from chapter to chapter, especially when the language or ideas are unfamiliar. Leave a little room in your plan for slower passages. When you turn the last page, the Anna Karenina book quiz is a quick way to see how much stayed with you.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read Anna Karenina?
At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, Anna Karenina takes about 24 hours and 31 minutes. At a fast 350 wpm it is 16 hours and 40 minutes; a slow, careful 150 wpm reader needs about 38 hours and 53 minutes.
How many pages is Anna Karenina?
About 864 pages in a standard paperback edition — editions vary, so treat it as a close estimate.
How many words is Anna Karenina?
Approximately 350,000 words, the figure used for every calculation on this page.
Is Anna Karenina hard to read?
Hard — long, two interleaved plots, many characters named similarly.
Is Anna Karenina worth the time?
Tolstoy's 1878 novel of two marriages in parallel: Anna's ruinous love for the officer Vronsky, and Levin's patient courtship of Kitty in the countryside. If that sounds like your kind of book, 24 hours and 31 minutes is a reasonable price for one of the most-read titles in its genre — and the quiz linked above tells you whether an earlier read already stuck.
What reading level is Anna Karenina?
About College, typically read by ages 16+. The suggested age is a guide; reading experience varies from person to person.
How long other classics take
Counting sessions instead of hours? Anna Karenina has 239 chapters, about 1,464 words each. Every title on the shelf is timed the same way in how long to read: 133 classics, timed — from Animal Farm’s single afternoon to War and Peace’s two-week campaign. For scale, Anna Karenina is the 4th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than The Count of Monte Cristo but longer than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Planning a whole-author project? The Leo Tolstoy books in order guide lists the full shelf in reading order.