How Long Does It Take to Read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) runs about 26,000 words — roughly 87 pages in a standard paperback. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that is 1 hour and 49 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 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde book quiz.
Reading time by speed
| Reading pace | Time to finish Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |
|---|---|
| Slow (150 wpm) | 2 hours and 53 minutes |
| Average (238 wpm) | 1 hour and 49 minutes |
| Fast (350 wpm) | 1 hour and 14 minutes |
| Speed reader (450 wpm) | 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 | 8 days |
| 30 minutes per day | 4 days |
| 60 minutes per day | 2 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. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’s word count (26,000) 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 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde hard to read?
Easy — a short, gripping mystery told at a run; Victorian diction with no drag in it.
A lawyer's questions about a brutal door in a back street uncover the double life of his respectable client: Dr Henry Jekyll, whose experiments split the good in him from the unrestrained Mr Hyde. The Victorian shorthand for the self we keep off the street. Think you know it already? Take the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde book quiz — eight questions, two minutes — or see how you do on the full mixed-classics book quiz.
A realistic pace plan for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Numbers help, but habits finish books. At 30 minutes a day — one coffee break or one commute — you are done in 4 days. Prefer the one-sitting test? You would need about 1 hour and 49 minutes in a single stretch, which most readers split over a weekend. And if you read 9 pages a night, the book lasts roughly 10 nights — the point is that a 87-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 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde book quiz is a quick way to see how much stayed with you.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde takes about 1 hour and 49 minutes. At a fast 350 wpm it is 1 hour and 14 minutes; a slow, careful 150 wpm reader needs about 2 hours and 53 minutes.
How many pages is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
About 87 pages in a standard paperback edition — editions vary, so treat it as a close estimate.
How many words is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Approximately 26,000 words, the figure used for every calculation on this page.
Is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde hard to read?
Easy — a short, gripping mystery told at a run; Victorian diction with no drag in it.
Is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde worth the time?
A lawyer's questions about a brutal door in a back street uncover the double life of his respectable client: Dr Henry Jekyll, whose experiments split the good in him from the unrestrained Mr Hyde. If that sounds like your kind of book, 1 hour and 49 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 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
About Grades 10-12, typically read by ages 14+. The suggested age is a guide; reading experience varies from person to person.
How long other classics take
Counting sessions instead of hours? Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has 10 chapters, about 2,600 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, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the 129th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than The Old Man and the Sea but longer than Romeo and Juliet.
Planning a whole-author project? The Robert Louis Stevenson books in order guide lists the full shelf in reading order.