How many words are in Crime and Punishment?
by Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866 · Literary Fiction
203,507
Word count
14 hr 15 min
Reading time
815
Est. pages
1866
Published
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is approximately 203,507 wordslong. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that's about 14 hr 15 min of reading spread across several sittings. First published in 1866, 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 203,507 words, Crime and Punishment runs longer than the typical range, in epic territory.
Source: Word count computed from the Project Gutenberg plain-text edition (eBook #2554); reflects this public-domain English translation · referenceVerified 2026-06-21
Literary Fiction novels of similar length
| Title | Author | Word count |
|---|---|---|
| Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | 206,052 |
| Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | 184,478 |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | 183,858 |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 169,481 |
| Mansfield Park | Jane Austen | 159,717 |
| Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | 157,969 |