How Long to Read The Great Nocturnal

By Jean Ray

How Long Does it Take to Read The Great Nocturnal?

It takes the average reader 2 hours and 26 minutes to read The Great Nocturnal by Jean Ray

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

In English for the first time, the collection that launched Jean Ray's reputation as the Belgian master of the weird tale After the commercial failure of his 1931 collection of fantastical stories Cruise of Shadows, Jean Ray spent the next decade writing and publishing under other names in the stifling atmosphere of Ghent. Only in the midst of the darkest years of the Nazi Occupation of Belgium would he suddenly publish a spate of books under his earlier nom de plume. The first of these volumes was The Great Nocturnal. Published in 1942, the collection, as its subtitle indicates, consists of tales of fear and dread, but a dread evoked not by the standard tropes of horror but what had by now evolved into Ray's personal brand of fear, drawn from a specifically Belgian notion of the fantastic that lies alongside the banality of everyday life. An aging haberdasher's monotonous life opens up to a spiritual fourth dimension (and serial murder); an inebriated young man in a tavern draws cryptic symbols and mutters statements that evoke an inexplicable terror among some sailors, and, as he sobers up, himself; three students drink Finnish Kümmel and keep watch over a deceased woman's apartment, awaiting a horrific transmutation. Yet these tales are laced with a certain mordant humor that bears as much allegiance with Ambrose Bierce as Edgar Allan Poe, and toy as much with the reader's expectations as they do with their characters. Jean Ray(1887-1964) is the best known of the multiple pseudonyms of Raymundus Joannes Maria de Kremer. Alternately referred to as the "Belgian Poe" and the "Flemish Jack London," Ray authored some 6,500 texts in his lifetime, not including his own biography, which remains shrouded in legend and fiction, much of it of his own making. His alleged lives as an alcohol smuggler on Rum Row in the Prohibition Era, an executioner in Venice, a Chicago gangster, and hunter in remote jungles in fact covered over a more prosaic, albeit ruinous, existence as a manager of a literary magazine that led to a prison sentence.

How long is The Great Nocturnal?

The Great Nocturnal by Jean Ray is 144 pages long, and a total of 36,576 words.

This makes it 49% the length of the average book. It also has 45% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read The Great Nocturnal Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 3 hours and 19 minutes to read The Great Nocturnal aloud.

What Reading Level is The Great Nocturnal?

The Great Nocturnal is suitable for students ages 10 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy The Great Nocturnal?

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