Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Published 1927 · 810 pages · 140,935 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Satire & Humor
How hard is Elmer Gantry to read?
Elmer Gantry scores 40 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 40 out of 100
- Lewis writes in accessible American prose of the 1920s. The vocabulary is clear, suited to his satirical purposes.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Direct, journalistic sentences that serve the story. Lewis writes for maximum accessibility and impact.
- Abstraction: 40 out of 100
- Grounded in the concrete world of American evangelicalism—the revivals, the seductions, the performances. Satire works through showing.
- Information density: 40 out of 100
- The novel follows Elmer through decades of schemes and affairs. Lewis takes his time but keeps the plot moving.
- Narrative indirection: 35 out of 100
- Lewis is satire is direct rather than subtle. His targets are clearly marked; his irony is broad.
- Symbolic density: 35 out of 100
- Elmer himself becomes symbolic—of American religious hypocrisy, of the salesman-preacher type. The symbolism serves the satire.
- Ironic distance: 60 out of 100
- Lewis observes Elmer with savage irony. The gap between religious profession and actual behavior is the book is subject.
- Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
- Elmer keeps getting away with it. Lewis offers no comeuppance—the corruption continues.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- A linear narrative following Elmer is career. The structure is conventional; the satire is the point.
How Elmer Gantry is regarded
Elmer Gantry holds a literary regard score of 63 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.