For some time now I've been wanting to know what the comparative lengths are of Dickens's novels. Your guess is as good as mine as to why I've been wanting to know this, but yesterday, thanks to @DickensDaily on Twitter, I was made aware of the ranking by word count that I reproduce below:
1. David Copperfield: 357,489
2. Dombey and Son: 357,484
3. Bleak House: 355,936
4. Little Dorrit: 339,870
5. Martin Chuzzlewit: 338,077
6. Our Mutual Friend: 327,727
7. Nicholas Nickleby: 323,722
8. The Pickwick Papers: 302,190
9. Barnaby Rudge: 255,229
10. The Old Curiosity Shop: 218,538
11. Great Expectations: 186,339
12. Oliver Twist: 158,631
13. A Tale of Two Cities: 137,000
14. Hard Times: 104,821
15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood: 96,178 (first 6 of 12 parts only)
In total that's 3,859,231 words. How far along am I on the journey I began in late 2007? I have still to read numbers 4, 5, 7 and 8 and won't bother with number 15; I've also read (not on this list) A Christmas Carol. By my calculations that means I'm just a shade off two thirds of the way.