How long does it take to read The Ancestor's Tale?

About 12 h 58 min at 238 words per minute, assuming 275 words per page. At 30 minutes a day that is 26 days.

How many words is The Ancestor's Tale?

Roughly 185,000 words, estimated from the median page count at 275 words per page. Open Library does not record word counts, so this is an estimate.

Book · by Richard Dawkins · first published 2004

How many pages is The Ancestor's Tale?

The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins has a median of 673 pages across 7 English-language print editions with a recorded page count; the middle half of editions run 650 to 688 pages.

Median pages

673

7 editions counted

Range

528–800

shortest to longest edition

Reading time

13h

at 238 wpm (non-fiction average)

Words (est.)

185k

at 275 words per page

How long will The Ancestor's Tale take you?

Starts at the non-fiction average of 238 words per minute and 275 words per page. Move the slider to your own speed.

Reading speed 238 wpm

Page density

Reading time

12 h 58 min

At 30 min a day

26 days

At 1 hour a day

13 days

Page count of every edition, by year

Each dot is one English-language print edition. Shaded: middle half of editions. Line: median.

Open Library edition records (2026-09-30 dump).

Editions counted

The 7 editions behind the figures above, newest first. Open Library lists 20 editions of this work in all languages and formats.

Year	Publisher	Format	Pages	Open Library
2016	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company	–	800	OL29732241M
2016	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company	–	688	OL29746132M
2005	Phoenix	Paperback	626	OL7988561M
2005	Mariner Books	–	673	OL7605986M
2004	Weidenfeld & Nicolson	–	528	OL22602026M
2004	Houghton Mifflin	–	688	OL7603207M
2004	Houghton Mifflin	–	673	OL23273164M

More by Richard Dawkins

All 5 books by Richard Dawkins with page counts

Questions

How many pages is The Ancestor's Tale?: About 673 pages: that is the median of 7 English-language print editions on Open Library. Editions range from 528 to 800 pages.
How long does it take to read The Ancestor's Tale?: About 12 h 58 min at 238 words per minute, assuming 275 words per page. At 30 minutes a day that is 26 days.
How many words is The Ancestor's Tale?: Roughly 185,000 words, estimated from the median page count at 275 words per page. Open Library does not record word counts, so this is an estimate.

Data: Open Library monthly data dumps (works, editions, authors, reading log, ratings) (Open Library / Internet Archive); How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate (Marc Brysbaert, Journal of Memory and Language 109 (2019)).