David Copperfield vs History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
3,852words between them — 15 min of it
David Copperfield is longer — 355,107 words against 351,255 for History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, a difference of 3,852 words or about 15 min of extra reading. History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is the harder read, at grade 15.7 against 7.9.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| David Copperfield | History of Tom Jones, a Foundling | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Dickens, Charles | Fielding, Henry |
| Words | 355,107 | 351,255 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 23h 40m | 23h 25m |
| Unique words | 16,593 | 13,500 |
| Sentences | 18,139 | 9,313 |
| Average sentence length | 19.6 words | 37.7 words |
| Reading grade | 7.9 | 15.7 |
| Reading ease | 73.1 | 49.6 |
| Long words | 7.6% | 9% |
Highlighted cells are the larger figure — except reading ease, where higher means easier.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions, same counting rule·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How this is worked out
- Both texts are counted the same way, from the same source, with Gutenberg's header and licence footer struck first.
- The gap is stated in words and then in time at 250 words a minute — the rate is printed because a duration without one cannot be checked.
- Difficulty is compared on Flesch–Kincaid grade, which reads sentence and word length only. It cannot see irony or dialect, so treat it as a measure of surface, not of effort.
gap = |355,107 − 351,255| = 3,852 words 3,852 ÷ 250 wpm = 15 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, David Copperfield or History of Tom Jones, a Foundling?
David Copperfield is longer — 355,107 words against 351,255 for History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, a difference of 3,852 words or about 15 min of extra reading. History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is the harder read, at grade 15.7 against 7.9.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 766 and no. 6593 — and from no other source. Neither book’s text is set on this site.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·US public domain·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Word counts and reading levels are computed from a specific public-domain edition and will differ from other editions and from other counting methods — see the method page.
