--- title: "How long to read the complete Sherlock Holmes? about 72 hours " description: "The complete Sherlock Holmes takes about 72 hours as an audiobook — 4 novels and 56 short stories, narrated unabridged. What that assumes, how it breaks down, and ho" url: https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/complete-sherlock-holmes/ site: "At One Place" --- # How long does it take to read the complete Sherlock Holmes? **How long to read the complete Sherlock Holmes: about 72 hours as an audiobook** 4 novels and 56 short stories, narrated unabridged The complete Sherlock Holmes canon — four novels and 56 short stories — runs about 72 hours in Stephen Fry's unabridged narration. That is the figure given here because it is a measured runtime rather than an estimate: no reliable word count for the complete canon exists, and the totals that circulate online are implausibly low. At 72 hours it is a larger commitment than the Harry Potter series. Doyle killed Holmes off in 1893 and was pressured into reviving him eight years later, so roughly two thirds of the canon exists because of public complaint. ## The numbers - **Total:** 2 days 23 hours - **In hours:** 72 hours - **Non-stop:** 3 days without sleeping - **Covers:** 4 novels and 56 short stories, narrated unabridged - **At a realistic pace:** an hour a night - **That works out as:** about 72 days - **As an audiobook:** 2 days 23 hours ## What this assumes The runtime of the Stephen Fry unabridged audiobook, not a reading time. Reading it silently would be substantially faster, but no trustworthy word count for the canon is published. > Given as an audiobook runtime because published word counts for the complete canon are unreliable — the most commonly quoted figure of about 236,000 words is far too low for four novels and 56 stories. ## Other books | What | How long | | --- | --- | | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | about 5 hours 23 minutes | | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | about 18 hours | | The Hobbit | about 6 hours 39 minutes | | The Bible | about 55 hours | | War and Peace | about 40 hours | | Infinite Jest | about 40 hours | | Moby-Dick | about 15 hours | | Ulysses | about 19 hours | | Dune | about 13 hours | | Pride and Prejudice | about 8 hours 33 minutes | | Nineteen Eighty-Four | about 6 hours 14 minutes | | The Great Gatsby | about 3 hours 18 minutes | | Animal Farm | about 2 hours 6 minutes | | It | about 31 hours | | The complete works of Shakespeare | about 59 hours | | All of English Wikipedia | about 41 years | ## Common questions ### How long does it take to read the complete Sherlock Holmes? about 72 hours as an audiobook — 4 novels and 56 short stories, narrated unabridged. ### What does that assume? The runtime of the Stephen Fry unabridged audiobook, not a reading time. Reading it silently would be substantially faster, but no trustworthy word count for the canon is published. ### How long at a realistic pace? an hour a night — about 72 days. ## Related pages - [How long to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/harry-potter-philosophers-stone/) - [How long to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/harry-potter-order-of-the-phoenix/) - [How long to read The Hobbit?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/the-hobbit/) - [How long to read the Bible?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/the-bible/) - [How long to read War and Peace?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/war-and-peace/) - [How long to read Infinite Jest?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/infinite-jest/) - [How long to read Moby-Dick?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/moby-dick/) - [How long to read Ulysses?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/ulysses/) - [How long to read the Harry Potter series?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/harry-potter-series/) - [How long to watch Friends?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/friends/) - [How long to watch One Piece?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/one-piece/) - [How long to watch The Simpsons?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/the-simpsons/) - [How long to watch The Office (US)?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/the-office-us/) - [How long to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-long-to/marvel-cinematic-universe/) ## Sources - Official vendor product documentation — At One Place (/about/)