30 Second Typing Test on the First Lines of Classic Novels

Type the opening for 30 seconds; the clock starts with your first key.

Type each word and press space after it. The clock starts on your first key. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

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30 seconds of typing. Words per minute is correct characters divided by five; accuracy is correct keystrokes out of all keystrokes.

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How it works

This 30 second typing test uses the opening lines of twelve classic novels, from It was the best of times to Call me Ishmael. Type in the box for half a minute and read your speed and accuracy.

Read the full guide

Why 30 seconds

A typing test of 30 seconds is short enough to repeat five times in a row and long enough to get past the first nervous words. One slip costs more than in a longer run, so treat each result as a sprint and compare it only with other 30 sec typing test scores.

Which opening to pick

Short openings such as Great Expectations (1861) end well inside half a minute, and the next one follows on. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is one sentence of 118 words, so you never reach its full stop.

Read the first line before your first key: the clock waits for you, and the first words set your pace.

Questions and answers

How is a typing test of 30 seconds scored?

Your speed is correct characters divided by five, doubled to make a per-minute figure. Capitals, commas and quotation marks all count. Accuracy shows beside it, and your best is kept in this browser only.

Is a 30 second score the same as a 1 minute score?

Not quite. Half a minute leaves less time to tire and more weight on each slip, and these openings carry capitals and punctuation. Compare a result only with another 30 second run on the same kind of text.

Are these the real first lines?

Yes. Each passage is the start of the novel as first published, from 1818 to 1903, with curly quotes set straight and long dashes typed as two hyphens. All twelve books are in the public domain in the United States.

All 12 passages

Short openings, under 50 words 2

Frankenstein (1818) The novel opens with a letter. Long words such as commencement and forebodings reward typing each one in a single sweep.
Great Expectations (1861) The shortest passage: 37 words. Pip comes three times and Pirrip and Philip once each, so the P key does most of the work.

Medium openings, 50 to 80 words 9

The Call of the Wild (1903) Place names with capitals, Puget Sound and San Diego, and a hyphen in tide-water.
David Copperfield (1850) An apostrophe in o'clock, a bracket, and simultaneously at the very end, the longest word in the passage.
Heart of Darkness (1899) Sailing words: yawl, anchor, flood and tide. Two sentences, both about waiting for the tide to turn.
Jane Eyre (1847) A bracket in the middle of a sentence and a semicolon before it. Sombre keeps its British spelling.
Little Women (1868) Four sisters speak in turn, each line in double quotation marks. Every quote here is a straight one, Shift and the apostrophe key on a US board.
Moby-Dick (1851) Three words, then a long sentence broken twice by dashes. Each dash is two hyphens with no spaces round it.
The Time Machine (1895) Traveller keeps its British double L, and the first sentence holds a bracketed aside.
The War of the Worlds (1898) One sentence of 72 words, with a semicolon at its hinge. Scrutinised is spelled with an s.
Wuthering Heights (1847) It starts with a year, 1801, so the first four keys are digits. An exclamation mark comes twice.

Long openings, over 80 words 1

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) One sentence of 118 words: seven pairs of opposites, then a dash typed as two hyphens. The repeated it was lets your fingers settle into a rhythm.

Notes

Anything you type or paste into this tool stays in your browser. It is never sent to us or to anyone else, and it is not saved anywhere except this browser's own storage.

More notes about this page

Scores, personal bests and run history are stored in this browser only. They are never sent to us, and clearing your browser data removes them.

Passages on this page were written for this site or are in the public domain in the United States. The source of each borrowed passage is given beside it.

Facts on this page were checked against the reference sources named under the list. If you spot a mistake, please tell us through the contact page.

How this list was compiled: Twelve passages, each the opening of a novel first published before 1931, so in the public domain in the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_in_the_United_States): A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, first published London: Chapman and Hall, 1859 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities); Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, first published London: Richard Bentley, and New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick); Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, first published London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1847 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre); Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, first published London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and Jones, 1818 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein); Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, first published London: Chapman and Hall, 1861 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations); David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, first published London: Bradbury and Evans, 1850 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Copperfield); The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, first published London: William Heinemann, 1895 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine); The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, first published London: William Heinemann, 1898 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds); Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, first published London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights); The Call of the Wild by Jack London, first published New York: Macmillan, 1903 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Call_of_the_Wild); Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, first published Blackwood's Magazine, Edinburgh, 1899; in book form, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, 1902 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness); Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, first published Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Women). Each passage is the opening paragraph cut at the last sentence end within 90 words (the opening of A Tale of Two Cities is one sentence of 118 words and is kept whole; Little Women takes its first four short paragraphs). Changes to the text: hard-wrapped lines were joined with single spaces, curly quotation marks and apostrophes were set straight, each long dash was set as two hyphens, the underscores that mark italics were removed; the passages keep every spelling of their editions. Publishers and years: the Wikipedia article of each novel, read 2026-09-24. Characters divided by five give standard words (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute). Passage names and notes are own work. Licence: Public domain in the United States: every novel here was first published between 1818 and 1903, before 1931. Passage names and notes are own work.