Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
Published 1942 · 365 pages · 114,988 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Short Fiction
How hard is Go Down, Moses to read?
Go Down, Moses scores 60 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. 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: 55 out of 100
- Faulkner writes in his characteristic style, with Southern dialect, hunting terminology, and legal language of inheritance. Some vocabulary requires inference from context.
- Sentence structure: 65 out of 100
- Long, labyrinthine sentences with multiple embedded clauses create significant challenges. Faulkner's prose demands active, patient reading.
- Abstraction: 60 out of 100
- The stories move between physical action—especially hunting—and abstract meditation on race, land, and the curse of slavery. Concrete and metaphysical interweave.
- Information density: 60 out of 100
- Complex family genealogies spanning generations require attention. Faulkner assumes readers will piece together the McCaslin family tree.
- Narrative indirection: 60 out of 100
- Stories approach their central concerns obliquely. What "The Bear" is really about—beyond a hunt—requires interpretation.
- Symbolic density: 65 out of 100
- The wilderness, the bear, the ledgers of slaves—Faulkner builds a rich symbolic vocabulary for understanding the South's racial inheritance.
- Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
- Faulkner maintains complex distance from his white characters' attempts to atone for slavery. The irony lies in the impossibility of their project.
- Resolution withholding: 55 out of 100
- Individual stories end, but the curse of slavery—the book's true subject—cannot be resolved. Faulkner refuses false redemption.
- Structural complexity: 65 out of 100
- Seven interconnected stories spanning decades create significant navigational challenges. The relationship between parts requires active assembly.
How Go Down, Moses is regarded
Go Down, Moses holds a literary regard score of 86 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.