Great American classic novels

Word count is one of those things new writers worry about but deny worrying about because we’re not supposed to be worrying about it. According to Wikipedia’s entry on word count, the typical word count of a novel is at least 80, 000 words. I’ve heard through the publishing world grapevine than most agents and editors will generally take a query for a first novel more seriously if the word count is between 80, 000 and 100, 000.

Instead of sleeping, I compiled in an Excel sheet novels I read growing up. They’re mostly classics because those are the only ones where word count is easily obtained. More contemporary fiction would require more digging. I wouldn’t say I personally love every one of these books, but I would regard them as classics, as great novels in themselves, even if the particular author wasn’t that impressive of a writer.

Author — Book Title — Word Count
(in case it wasn’t obvious)

The Stats:

Average word count of the Great Novels is 136, 604 words. That’s like the literary institution’s recommended word count for first novels plus a long novella! But the arithmetic mean isn’t very helpful here because we’ve got some doozies on this list.

Median word count is 99, 341 words. That’s longer than Wikipedia’s estimation of the typical novel length, but just about right as a target word count for budding novel writers.

Longest novel on the list is Tolstoy’s War and Peace (surprise, surprise) at 587, 287 words. Note that Ayn Rand’s cult classic Atlas Shrugged isn’t that far behind, at 561, 996 words.

Shortest novel on the list is Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, one of my personal favorites, at 46, 118 words. Most of Hemingway’s novels make pretty slim books too.

Word count on the Bible, Old and New combined: 774, 776 words according to Source A and 788, 280 words in the King James according to Source B. But the Bible’s word count isn’t relevant here because first of all, it’s not by one author unless you want to go there with me and say it’s God and in that case, well, it’s God, so yeah.

Then again, considering the oeuvres of certain writers, like John Steinbeck, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, and even Amy Tan, they’ve already written way more than 700, 000-ish words.

Need A Life:

I can’t believe I just sat here and compiled that list. By the way, I came up with each book off the top of my head, either by author name or by title. I wrecked my brains from the excursion. I need to go do something like shop for shoes or eat ice cream now…. Ugh.

Word count on past PEN/Faulkner Award winners: