How Long Does It Take to Read These 5 Classics? A Word-Count Guide

You have a little time to read, but “a short story” does not tell you how much text you are choosing. A measured length can help with that decision, as long as the number is not mistaken for a deadline.

For this comparison, we counted five complete short stories from the Project Gutenberg editions linked below. These are the individual stories, not the total lengths of their containing collections. Novels such as Dracula and The Great Gatsby are not part of this measurement.

The measured lengths and two calculated scenarios

The table shows the actual text counts under the method described below. The time columns assume 250 and 150 words per minute. Those rates are example inputs for planning, not claims about an average reader or a speed you should achieve.

Text sources: Saki’s Beasts and Super-Beasts, Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Poe’s Works, volume two, and O. Henry’s The Four Million. The exact online texts are listed in the source notes.¹²³⁴

We round each result up to a whole minute. Time spent looking up words, taking notes, rereading, or pausing is not included. A story can take longer than either column without anything having gone wrong.

What exactly was counted?

The count starts with the first prose sentence and ends with the final sentence or signature of each story. Titles, contents lists, navigation, publisher information, and the surrounding collection are excluded. Words inside dialogue, a notice displayed within the narrative, and an in-story letter are included.

A word is counted as a sequence of English letters, with an apostrophe inside the sequence allowed. Thus “don’t” counts as one; a hyphenated expression is split into its component words. A numeral such as “10” counts as one item, and a decimal such as “1.87” also counts as one. Punctuation and decorative separators do not add items.

The rule matters. A word processor that treats hyphens differently can produce a slightly different total without either count describing a different story. These are counts for the specified text and token rule, not an assertion that every edition must yield the same number.

The source text was checked and counted on 26 September 2026. The accompanying editorial data records the source identifiers and a fingerprint of the counted word sequence so the calculation can be repeated.

Turn a length into your own estimate

The calculation is simple:

Minutes of continuous reading = counted words ÷ your assumed words per minute.

For example, The Selfish Giant contains 1,660 counted words here. At an assumed 200 words per minute, that is 8.3 minutes, or 9 minutes when rounded up. Add whatever allowance you need for the way you intend to read.

If you do not know your pace, read a short selection and notice how long the session actually takes. That gives you a personal planning reference for similar prose, not a permanent score attached to your reading ability.

Do not extrapolate too confidently from one author to another. Dialogue, irony, unusual vocabulary, and emotional content can change the kind of attention you give the page.

Pick a story by more than the smallest number

The Open Window: a concentrated social encounter

At 1,219 counted words, Saki’s story is the shortest in this particular group. Its opening conversation puts a visitor at an informational disadvantage. The compact setting makes it a useful choice when you want one complete encounter, but the prose still contains social nuance and irony.¹

After Twenty Years: a promise and a conversation

O. Henry’s story runs to 1,270 words. Its first situation is clear: someone is waiting for an old friend at an appointed place. Choose it for the way a conversation builds expectations, not as a challenge to guess an ending before reaching it.⁴

The Selfish Giant: a garden and a changing atmosphere

Wilde’s story has 1,660 words under this method. Repeated places and images offer a different experience from the two conversations above. The fairy-tale form includes loss and religious imagery; its moderate length should not be read as a promise of a uniformly light mood.²

The Gift of the Magi: a household under financial pressure

This O. Henry story contains 2,085 words. Its opening attention to money and a desired Christmas gift gives you a concrete situation to follow. Even if you know the premise, the narrator’s comments are part of the experience of reading the text.⁴

The Tell-Tale Heart: intensity rather than a long commitment

Poe’s story runs to 2,148 words. It is only slightly longer than “The Gift of the Magi” in this comparison, but its voice and subject make a very different reading session. Violence and a deeply unsettled narration are central to the text.³

Use the estimate to make room, not to hurry

For a ten-minute interval, the table offers a scale of commitment, not a guarantee that any particular story will fit. Starting a story and finishing it later usually beats speeding up to match a column.

Download the containing EPUB from the relevant catalogue and use the contents to select the story. After you upload the EPUB, BlueReader processes it on the server before you open it from the bookshelf. Keep the original download.⁵

For selection by mood rather than minutes, try seven classic short stories. For reducing interruptions without eliminating useful lookup, see reading classic English without checking every word.