How long is it?
544 pages in the Main Street Books 1992 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Historical Fiction · Adventure
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 40 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 544 pagesMain Street Books · 1992
- Reading time
- 11 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Variable
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 11 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 22 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In 1849, Dr. Sardius McPheeters leaves Louisville for the California goldfields, hoping to escape his debts, and takes his young son Jaimie along. Eager for adventure, Jaimie travels west beside a father whose confidence in his own abilities repeatedly leads him into trouble. Among emigrants, criminals and fellow fortune seekers, staying together and reaching California become more immediate concerns than striking gold.
Reader notes
Jaimie’s narration alternates with his father’s letters and journal entries, offering two very different voices on the journey. The historical adventure is comic but often harsh: the doctor’s mishaps and grand opinions accompany serious frontier violence.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Witty · Descriptive
- Tone
- Humorous · Dark
- Structure
- Episodic
- Driven by
- Character · Plot
- Point of view
- First person · Epistolary
- Setting
- Kentucky · California
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 2 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Family
- Coming of age
- Wealth
- Survival
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Main Street Books · 1992 · Paperback. ISBN 9780385422222.
How long does it take to read The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters?
About 11 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 544-page Main Street Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Main Street Books
- Publication year
- 1992
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 544
- ISBN
- 9780385422222
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1958
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Historical Fiction · Adventure · Literary Fiction · Historical fiction · Picaresque
- Editions
- 1
- Languages
- 1 (English)