For a few examples, lets start on the low end of word count where we have the great gatsby clocking in at approx. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Tolkien this study guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the hobbit. It was published on 21 september 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the carnegie medal and awarded a prize from the new york herald tribune for best juvenile fiction. In this prequel to the lord of the rings, bilbo baggins enjoys a quiet life until a group of dwarves and a wizard named gandalf enlist him in their quest for a dragons treasure.
Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity hacker. Tolkien as the name of a race of small humanoids in his fantasy fiction, the first published being the hobbit in 1937. The book was first published on september 21, 1937 and is set in the years 2941 to 2942 of the third age before the events of the lord of the rings. Assassins apprentice 453, the hobbit 458, and the lord of the rings 483.
He enjoys a peaceful and pastoral life but his life is interrupted by a surprise visit by the wizard gandalf. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. For book length, i chose to go with word count rather than page count, since theres so much variability when it comes to the number of words that. It does not give a precise length of time on their way out, but. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. The silmarillion and the lord of the rings both introduce many times more new concepts, characters and locations which makes them more complex. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. In addition, movie smaug is much larger than he is in the book, being over 140 meters in length, or twice the size of a 747. Since then, however, it has been noted that there is prior evidence of the word, in a 19thcentury list of legendary. The enduring popularity of the hobbit makes early printings of the book attractive collectors items. The hobbit the book, the hobbit starts at bilbos house. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Jul 30, 2012 jackson made the lord of the rings trilogy with a one book to one film ratio. The entire lord of the rings series including the hobbit 576,459 words.
The hobbit, prequel and origination story to the lord of the rings trilogy, is about bilbo baggins a shireling that is used to an ordinary and wellmaintained life. Thrain confirms gandalfs fears of smaug being subservient to another unseen evil force, later revealed to be sauron. Tolkien 18921973 is the creator of middleearth and author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as the hobbit, the lord of the rings, and the silmarillion. Or are you a visually impaired reader who prefers largeprint editions. However, since each tome blitzed the 100,000 word mark the fellowship of the ring has177,227 words, the two towers. Reading length provides a calculation for the word count of this book, find out how long it will take you to read.
The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. Sting was an elven shortsword made in gondolin during the first age. The lotr text has 482,058 occurrences, with 12,972 distinct lemmas. The oxford english dictionary, which added an entry for the word in the 1970s, credits tolkien with coining it. Initially intended as a standalone story for children, it was later realigned more into the middleearth legendarium by 1951, when a revised edition was released.
Tolkiens own children, the hobbit has sold many millions of copies worldwide and established itself as a modern classic. The latter tend to have larger, and therefore fewer, pages. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. Harry potter and the philosophers stone 76,944 words. An unexpected journey and by extension, parts 2 and 3 of this unnecessary trilogy, but i wound up comparing the density of the hobbit movies, as measured in words in book per second of movie wibpsom, to other prominent movie adaptations of books. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the. Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. The first printing of the first englishlanguage edition can sell for between. The hobbit the motivation of lust essays research papers. Tolkiens famous saga, the prelude to the lord of the rings, has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure. Before bilbo is really able to improve upon the situation, gandalf has invited himself to tea and when he arrives, he comes with a company of dwarves led by thorin. However, since each tome blitzed the 100,000 word mark the fellowship of the ring has 177,227 words, the two towers has 143,436 words, and the return of the king has 4,462 there was more than enough descriptive ingredients for the director. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan.
The novel that im writing is at 53,000 words and i was trying to figure out how many words is average for a book of my genre. This means your book will be between 100 and 230 pages in total. But after the latters success, warner bros can probably. Bilbo baggins discovered sting in the year ta 2941 in a trollhoard, and used it during the quest of erebor. The hobbit, or there and back again an unexpected party 4 remarkable tale. Words to pages determine page length from words count.
Rowling started with two books of relatively conventional length before she had the latitude to start busting word count limits in the harry. May 14, 2020 in addition, movie smaug is much larger than he is in the book, being over 140 meters in length, or twice the size of a 747. Jackson made the lord of the rings trilogy with a one book to one film ratio. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. And i believe pams book is good enough to one day be in that category. To obtain the double spaced length, multiply the values in the last column by 2.
He had not been down that way under the hill for ages and ages, not since his. Dec 09, 2012 there has been much beardscratching at the decision to eke a trilogy out of the hobbit, a quarter of the length of the lord of the rings. The average paragraph length across all the books was 41. The dragon makes his full appearance in the second part. More recently the fault in our stars comes in at 67,000. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Beyond creating entire languages for elves and orcs, tolkien was known for making up english words as well. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules.
There has been much beardscratching at the decision to eke a trilogy out of the hobbit, a quarter of the length of the lord of the rings. There were 5 titles at the heavierweight end, all of which had an average paragraph length of more than 50 words. The hobbit, or there and back again is a childrens fantasy novel by english author j. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors.
Though just a dagger by standard of elves, sting made a perfect shortsword for a hobbit, although it was still rather small. The book with the longest paragraph was the prince of nothing, which had one paragraph of 508 words. Brass buttons, musical composition administered by. But because time sometimes slows down or speeds up when were engrossed in a good story, its very hard to compare the length of different. The radio dramatisation of the hobbit became a classic when it was first broadcast on bbc radio 4 in 1968 and it continues to delight today. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. R tolkien that takes place in the fictional world of middle earth, which is the setting of most of the authors works. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Book, author, year, sentences, words, words per sentence.
The hobbit 95,022 words the fellowship of the ring 177,227 words the two towers 143,436 words the. Balin, dwalin, bifur, bofur, bombur, dori, nori, ori, fili, kili, oin, gloin the other twelve dwarves who go with thorin, gandalf, and bilbo on the long journey. Jun 27, 2019 a story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. The third and final installment of the hobbit series hits theaters wednesday, and itll mark the last time fans will get the chance to explore middle earth for the conceivable future. Hobbits first appeared in the 1937 childrens novel the hobbit, whose titular hobbit is the protagonist bilbo. The development of the character of bilbo baggins bartleby. His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. Bert, tom, and william trolls from whom bilbo takes the key to a cave from which he and the dwarves take gold and the swords they use in battle with the goblins and in the battle of. The hobbit 95,022 the lord of the rings 455,125 the two towers 143,436. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down. I was mostly looking for a statistical basis to express my displeasure at the hobbit. Dec 28, 2012 brass buttons, musical composition administered by.
Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the whole text. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Like every other hobbit, bilbo baggins likes nothing better than a quiet evening in his snug hole in the ground, dining on a sumptuous dinner in front of a fire. The definitive collection of tolkiens classic fairie tales, in the vein of the hobbit, illustrated by oscar winner alan lee never before published in a single volume, tolkiens four novellas farmer giles of ham, leaf by niggle, smith of wootton. What were gandalfs last words to bilbo in the hobbit. Tolkien set out a fictional etymology for the word hobbit in an appendix to the lord of the rings, to the effect that it. The hobbit, or there and back again mentions in our blog. Tolkien 92,400 words song of solomon by toni morrison 91,419 words joy luck club by amy tan 89,297 words waiting. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory.
None of the other books topped 500 words in a single paragraph, although there were three that surpassed 450. When authors like roald dahl and jon scieszka pair up with illustrators. The final hobbit film is an unprecedentedly gratuitous. Apr 03, 2016 and i believe pams book is good enough to one day be in that category. Some of these essays can be done in one day and others in one night. How many pages do the lord of the rings books have. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Words to pages determine page length from words count and.
What were gandalfs last words to bilbo in the hobbit answers. No more than 90,000 words seems to be the editors mantra these days. Hobbits are a fictional humanlike race in the novels of j. One or more music publishing rights collecting societies tracklist. Dec 17, 2014 the third and final installment of the hobbit series hits theaters wednesday, and itll mark the last time fans will get the chance to explore middle earth for the conceivable future. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. As you read the hobbit, you might find yourself confidently checking a dictionary for a definition only to find it not there, because with tolkiens knowledge of the fundamentals of language, his madeup words sound real. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found. The hobbit has more unique words and a higher unique word density than both the silmarillion and each volume in the lord of the rings.
However, this does not necessarily mean it is more difficult to read. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. The hobbit, or there and back again an unexpected party 3 chapter i an unexpected party in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. How long does bilbo stay at the last homely house in the book the hobbit. John ronald reuel tolkien the hobbit, or there and back again. First, warner brothers split the seventh harry potter book into the deathly hallows part 1 and part 2. Vocabulary from the hobbit learn with flashcards, games, and more for free. The hobbit is the story of bilbo baggins, a hobbit who lives in hobbiton. The hobbit tells a fantastic story of adventure, danger, friendship, and courage, and serves as a prequel to the even more immersive and epic book series, the lord of the rings. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words.
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