How many words are in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?
by James Joyce · 1916 · Literary Fiction
84,828
Word count
5 hr 56 min
Reading time
340
Est. pages
1916
Published
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is approximately 84,828 wordslong. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that's about 5 hr 56 min of reading spread across several sittings. First published in 1916, it sits in the Literary Fiction category.
Typical literary fiction novels run 70,000–100,000 words, with a sweet spot around 80,000–90,000. At 84,828 words, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man sits comfortably within the standard range for the genre.
Source: Word count computed from the Project Gutenberg plain-text edition (eBook #4217, public domain) · referenceVerified 2026-06-21
Literary Fiction novels of similar length
| Title | Author | Word count |
|---|---|---|
| Persuasion | Jane Austen | 83,335 |
| My Ántonia | Willa Cather | 81,365 |
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | 78,462 |
| Beloved | Toni Morrison | 95,418 |
| The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | 73,404 |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 99,121 |