Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp
Published 1928 · 134 pages · 40,000 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Morphology of the Folktale to read?
Morphology of the Folktale scores 53 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: 62 out of 100
- Precise structural vocabulary that is technical but consistently defined and applied.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- Abstraction: 82 out of 100
- Operates at a high level of formal abstraction, stripping narrative to its logical grammar.
- Information density: 80 out of 100
- Very high: each page introduces new formal distinctions and applies them to specific tale examples.
- Narrative indirection: 14 out of 100
- Structural argument is stated directly and then demonstrated through systematic application.
- Symbolic density: 14 out of 100
- The narrative functions are formal, not symbolic; Propp explicitly brackets symbolic interpretation.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Entirely analytical; no ironic register.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each chapter concludes with a clear structural claim.
- Structural complexity: 38 out of 100
- The book's own structure mirrors its argument — systematic, numbered, recursive.
How Morphology of the Folktale is regarded
Morphology of the Folktale holds a literary regard score of 48 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.