diff --git a/src/core.js b/src/core.js
index 8e07078ef..409ae060d 100644
--- a/src/core.js
+++ b/src/core.js
@@ -399,9 +399,14 @@ var PDFDocument = (function PDFDocumentClosure() {
       var length = this.stream.length;
       var linearization = false;
       if (length) {
-        linearization = new Linearization(this.stream);
-        if (linearization.length != length)
-          linearization = false;
+        try {
+          linearization = new Linearization(this.stream);
+          if (linearization.length != length)
+            linearization = false;
+        } catch (err) {
+          warn('The linearization data is not available ' +
+               'or unreadable pdf data is found');
+        }
       }
       // shadow the prototype getter with a data property
       return shadow(this, 'linearization', linearization);