Most people who have read Sherlock Holmes have read some Sherlock Holmes. A story encountered in an anthology here, a novel picked up there, possibly a collection read through properly once and never revisited. The complete canon, meaning all four novels and all 56 short stories as Conan Doyle published them, is something far fewer people have worked through from beginning to end, despite being one of the most widely translated and reprinted bodies of fiction in the history of literature.
Part of the reason is the same uncertainty that keeps people away from any large reading project: the gap between “I know this is a lot” and “I know exactly how long this will take.” The Sherlock Holmes canon is actually more approachable than its reputation suggests once the numbers are laid out. The complete works run to approximately 673,500 words across four novels and five short story collections. At a reading speed of 200 words per minute, which is a comfortable adult pace for prose fiction of this type, the entire canon takes approximately 56 hours and 7 minutes to read.
That number puts the whole project in a different frame. Fifty-six hours is not a casual afternoon, but it is not an open-ended commitment either. At 15 minutes of daily reading it completes in around 224 days. At 30 minutes a day it is done in roughly 112 days, just under four months. The short story format means individual sessions can be self-contained: a single story at 200 wpm takes between 8 and 60 minutes depending on length, which makes the collection unusually easy to pick up and put down without losing narrative continuity.
The canon is structured across four novels and five collections of short stories. The novels run from approximately 43,000 words for A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, to around 59,000 words for The Hound of the Baskervilles. The five short story collections range from 58,000 words for His Last Bow to 118,000 words for The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The individual stories within those collections vary from around 7,400 words for the shortest to approximately 12,000 words for the longest, with a canon average of roughly 8,600 words per story.
Understanding those numbers before starting is the difference between a reading project that holds and one that drifts. This calculator uses real word counts for every novel and every story in the canon and produces a personalised reading time estimate at any speed, alongside daily and weekly planning tools and an audio comparison.
[su_row]
[su_column size=”1/1″]
[/su_column]
[/su_row]
How the Calculator Works
The calculator uses verified word counts for every work in the complete Sherlock Holmes canon. The four novels are: A Study in Scarlet at approximately 43,000 words, The Sign of the Four at approximately 43,500 words, The Hound of the Baskervilles at approximately 59,000 words, and The Valley of Fear at approximately 57,000 words. The five short story collections are: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at approximately 107,000 words across 12 stories, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at approximately 93,000 words across 11 stories, The Return of Sherlock Holmes at approximately 118,000 words across 13 stories, His Last Bow at approximately 58,000 words across 8 stories, and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes at approximately 95,000 words across 12 stories. The full canon total is approximately 673,500 words.
The reading speed slider sets the words-per-minute pace for all time estimates. The default is 200 wpm, a comfortable average for adult readers of prose fiction. Preset buttons allow quick selection of common speeds, or the slider can be set to match a personally measured pace. Every estimate in the calculator updates in real time as the slider is adjusted.
The study speed slider is separate and set to zero by default. This setting is for any slower, more reflective mode of reading: re-reading passages, pausing between stories, or engaging with the text more analytically. A study pace of 100 words per minute is a reasonable estimate for deliberate reading with pauses for reflection.
The audio toggle adds a comparison figure based on a typical professional narration pace for the canon. The most widely available complete audiobook recordings of the Sherlock Holmes stories run to approximately 72 hours at standard narration speed. The calculator adjusts this baseline for playback speeds between 0.75 and 2.0 times standard.
The daily reading slider and the weekly planning option both produce a personalised completion estimate. Entering the realistic daily or weekly minutes available returns the number of days or weeks required to complete the full canon, or any individual novel or collection, at that pace.
The story-by-story and collection-by-collection table shows word count, reading time, and story count for each section of the canon, making it straightforward to plan any novel or collection as a standalone reading project or to track progress within a full canon reading.
The complete Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle contains approximately 657,000 words across 4 novels and 56 short stories collected in five volumes. Adjust your reading speed, study pace and audio narration speed below, and the calculator works out exactly how long each individual work and the full canon takes at your personal pace.
📖 What do you want to read?
Choose the complete canon, novels only, a specific collection, or a single work.
📖 Reading speed
Most adults read prose at 150–250 words per minute. Use the presets or fine-tune with the slider.
Used to calculate your personalised daily completion plan.
✏️ Study speed
Study reading or a careful re-read is slower. Set a pace that reflects how attentively you want to read the text.
🎧 Audio narration speed
Standard audiobook narration runs at around 110–150 wpm. Adjust to match your preferred listening pace.
📅 Reading plan
Plan by daily or weekly minutes to see how long your reading schedule takes across the full canon.
—
At your reading speed—
At your study pace—
At your narration speed—
Reading time ÷ your daily minutes—
at your reading speed—
📚 The four novels
| # | Novel | Year | Words | Reading | Study | Audio |
|---|
📖 All 56 short stories
| # | Story | Words | Reading | Study | Audio |
|---|
Share it with friends or family who might find it helpful.
Reading vs Studying Sherlock Holmes
Reading and studying are distinct modes of engagement, and the difference between them matters for planning.
Reading in the standard sense means moving through the text at a consistent forward pace, following each story as it unfolds without stopping except where the narrative naturally prompts it. At 200 words per minute, the complete Sherlock Holmes canon takes approximately 56 hours and 7 minutes. This is the figure for working through all 60 works from beginning to end at a comfortable adult reading pace.
Study reading is slower and more deliberate. It involves pausing at passages that reward closer attention, re-reading sections for clarity or nuance, and generally engaging with the text at a pace that allows for reflection between readings. At 100 words per minute, the full canon takes approximately 112 hours and 15 minutes, which is twice the reading time.
The Sherlock Holmes canon has an unusual characteristic that affects this calculation. The short story format means that each piece is a self-contained unit that can be read in a single sitting, making individual reading sessions feel more complete than they would with a long novel. A reader returning to the canon for a second time, or approaching it with closer analytical attention, will naturally spend more time on certain stories than others without the pace variation affecting the overall plan in the way it would across a single long narrative.
For most first-time readers of the complete canon, the realistic total time sits somewhere between the reading and study estimates, typically in the range of 60 to 75 hours depending on individual pace and how much time is spent between stories.
Time Per Novel and Story
The works in the Sherlock Holmes canon vary in length, and knowing those differences is useful for planning individual reading sessions.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the longest novel in the canon at approximately 59,000 words. At 200 wpm it takes around 4 hours 55 minutes to read. It is also the most widely read of the four novels and for many readers serves as a first encounter with the canon. The Valley of Fear follows at approximately 57,000 words, taking around 4 hours 45 minutes.
A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four are shorter novels, each running to approximately 43,000 to 43,500 words, or around 3 hours 35 minutes at 200 wpm. Both were published before the short story collections and are notably different in structure and pacing from the later novels.
The short story collections vary in size. The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the largest collection at approximately 118,000 words across 13 stories, taking around 9 hours 50 minutes at 200 wpm. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes runs to approximately 107,000 words across 12 stories, taking around 8 hours 55 minutes. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes covers 12 stories across approximately 95,000 words, taking around 7 hours 55 minutes. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes runs to approximately 93,000 words across 11 stories, taking around 7 hours 45 minutes. His Last Bow is the shortest collection at approximately 58,000 words across 8 stories, taking around 4 hours 50 minutes.
Within the collections, individual stories range from approximately 7,400 words for the shortest, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, to approximately 12,000 words for the longest individual stories including The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans. The canon average across all 56 short stories is approximately 8,600 words per story, or about 43 minutes at 200 wpm. In practice, this means most stories fit comfortably within a single reading session of 30 to 60 minutes.
Daily and Weekly Reading Plans
The full canon at 673,500 words and approximately 56 hours of reading time at 200 wpm produces the following completion timelines at different daily and weekly commitments.
At 10 minutes a day, the full canon takes approximately 337 days, just under eleven and a half months. This is the most conservative sustainable pace and is achievable for anyone who can protect a short daily reading window. At this rate, a single short story takes approximately four to five sessions, which maintains a sense of progress without requiring extended commitment on any given day.
At 15 minutes a day, the full canon takes approximately 225 days, just under seven and a half months. This is a common starting point for structured reading plans. A typical Sherlock Holmes short story at the canon average length takes approximately three sessions at this rate, which keeps each story feeling current rather than fragmented.
At 30 minutes a day, the full canon takes approximately 112 days, just under sixteen weeks. This is a comfortable reading pace for anyone who reads during a regular daily window such as a commute or a lunch break. At this rate, most short stories complete in a single or two-session read. The Hound of the Baskervilles takes around ten sessions. The full Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection takes around eighteen sessions.
At 60 minutes a week, the full canon takes approximately 337 days, the same as 10 minutes daily. A single weekly session of an hour is long enough to read one or two short stories in full each week, which gives a clear sense of weekly progress even at this pace.
At 120 minutes a week, the full canon takes approximately 168 days, around twenty-four weeks or six months. This is the equivalent of just over 17 minutes a day. At two hours per week, one or two collections can be completed each month, making this a practical pace for working through the canon in a deliberate but unhurried way.
Reading vs Listening
The complete Sherlock Holmes canon is available in several professional audio recordings. The most complete audiobook editions, covering all 60 works, run to approximately 72 hours at standard narration pace. This is longer than the silent reading time of approximately 56 hours at 200 wpm, meaning audio takes around 28 percent more time than reading at a standard adult pace.
At 1.5 times playback speed, the full audiobook runs to approximately 48 hours, faster than standard reading speed for most listeners. At 1.25 times speed it runs to around 58 hours, broadly comparable to reading pace. The short story format means that adjusting playback speed to a comfortable level is particularly easy with this canon, since each story is a short, self-contained piece where any comprehension difficulties from faster playback are limited to a single story rather than carrying consequences across a long novel.
The practical case for audio with the Sherlock Holmes canon is similar to that for any episodic fiction. The short story format makes listening particularly convenient because stopping at the end of any story is a natural break point. A 45-minute commute accommodates a full short story at standard narration pace, or a story and a half at 1.25 times speed, which means meaningful daily progress is possible without any dedicated sitting-down reading time at all.
The calculator’s audio toggle allows any playback speed to be entered and compared directly against the reading and study time estimates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to read the complete Sherlock Holmes canon?
At a reading speed of 200 words per minute, the full canon of 60 works takes approximately 56 hours and 7 minutes. At 15 minutes a day that is around 225 days. At 30 minutes a day it is approximately 112 days, just under four months. At a study pace of 100 words per minute the full canon takes approximately 112 hours 15 minutes. The calculator allows any words-per-minute rate to be set.
How many words are in the complete Sherlock Holmes canon?
The complete canon contains approximately 673,500 words. This covers all four novels: A Study in Scarlet (approximately 43,000 words), The Sign of the Four (approximately 43,500 words), The Hound of the Baskervilles (approximately 59,000 words), and The Valley of Fear (approximately 57,000 words). It also covers all five short story collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (approximately 107,000 words), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (approximately 93,000 words), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (approximately 118,000 words), His Last Bow (approximately 58,000 words), and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (approximately 95,000 words).
How long does each story take to read?
The 56 short stories average approximately 8,600 words, which takes around 43 minutes at 200 wpm. The shortest story in the canon, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, is approximately 7,400 words and takes around 37 minutes. The longest individual short stories, including The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, run to approximately 12,000 words and take around an hour. The four novels range from approximately 3 hours 35 minutes for A Study in Scarlet to approximately 4 hours 55 minutes for The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Is the audiobook faster or slower than reading?
Slower at standard playback. Complete audiobook editions of the full canon run to approximately 72 hours at standard narration pace, compared to around 56 hours of silent reading at 200 wpm. At 1.5 times playback speed the audiobook runs to approximately 48 hours, which is faster than standard reading pace for most listeners.
Can this calculator be used to plan a partial reading of the canon?
Yes. The collection-by-collection and novel-by-novel table in the calculator shows reading time, word count, and story count for each section individually. Any novel or collection can be used as a standalone reading target. The daily and weekly planning tools produce completion estimates for the full canon total by default, but the individual section times in the table can be used to plan any subset of the canon separately.
In what order should the canon be read?
The calculator does not address reading order, which involves editorial and personal preference rather than time or word-count data. Most complete editions follow publication order, which is also the order reflected in the calculator’s breakdown table.
Who built this calculator?
The Savzz Complete Sherlock Holmes Reading Time Calculator was built by the team at Savzz.co.uk, a UK money saving site. We also make free, practical tools designed to give real answers to time and cost questions. We built it because the complete canon is one of those reading projects that a lot of people intend to complete but few do, largely because “all 60 works” sounds larger than the actual reading time suggests. Fifty-six hours at a comfortable reading pace, with a specific daily plan, is an achievable project for most readers. The calculator is completely free and requires no sign up.
Final Thoughts
The complete Sherlock Holmes canon is a more accessible reading project than its 60-work scope implies. The short story format means that every session can be self-contained. Most stories fit comfortably within 30 to 45 minutes. The four novels are each shorter than many contemporary thrillers. And the full 673,500 words, at a realistic daily reading commitment, is a project measured in months rather than years.
What tends to prevent people from reading the complete canon is not difficulty but indefiniteness: a sense that it is a lot without a clear picture of what “a lot” means in actual hours and days. The calculator produces that picture. At 15 minutes a day, the whole canon is done in seven and a half months. At 30 minutes a day, under four months.
Set a realistic daily or weekly commitment, use the story-by-story breakdown to plan individual sessions, and the complete canon becomes a specific project with a specific end rather than a vague future intention.
