Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Published 1939 · 5,491 words · Poetry
How hard is Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats to read?
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats scores 30 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. 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
- Eliot employs a blend of accessible language with occasional less common words like "physiognomy" and "gastronomy," alongside a host of charmingly invented cat names such as "Munkustrap" and "Jellylorum." While these invented names are a form of specialized vocabulary, their context within the playful poems makes them more whimsical than genuinely difficult, placing it above 'The Great Gatsby' but well below 'Moby-Dick'.
- Sentence structure: 48 out of 100
- The syntax is generally clear and rhythmic, characteristic of poetry intended for a broad audience. Sentences are typically straightforward, avoiding the deep subordination or extremely long, nested clauses found in works like Henry James, though poetic inversions occur for meter and rhyme. The structures are more direct than 'The Great Gatsby' but not as simplistic as a child's diary.
- Abstraction: 32 out of 100
- The content is overwhelmingly concrete, focusing on vivid descriptions of individual cats, their physical traits, and their specific actions and habits. Even poems like "The Naming of Cats" discuss concepts through tangible examples, maintaining a grounded, narrative approach without delving into philosophical or theoretical discourse. This places it closer to pure adventure than works exploring existential themes.
- Information density: 47 out of 100
- Each poem functions as a concentrated character sketch, introducing a distinct cat with a unique personality and a mini-narrative or set of habits. While not dense with historical detail or complex allusions like 'War and Peace,' the poems efficiently convey a significant amount of character information and specific actions within a short space, requiring moderate attention to appreciate each cat's distinctiveness.
- Narrative indirection: 20 out of 100
- The poems directly describe the characteristics and actions of various cats, leaving little room for reader inference. The narrator explicitly states facts about each cat, such as Jennyanydots teaching mice or Growltiger's past as a 'Bravo Cat.' Meaning is conveyed through straightforward exposition rather than requiring the reader to piece together fragmented information.
- Symbolic density: 25 out of 100
- The poems primarily offer literal, if whimsical, descriptions of anthropomorphized cats and their activities. While cats like Macavity embody criminal archetypes, their significance remains largely within the narrative of their feline lives, lacking deeper, pervasive allegorical or symbolic layers found in works like *Moby-Dick*. The focus is on character and amusing situations rather than abstract meaning.
- Ironic distance: 30 out of 100
- The poems maintain a largely direct and affectionate tone, celebrating the eccentricities of the cats with good-natured humor. While the narrator describes peculiar feline behaviors, there is little ironic distance between what is stated and the author's intended meaning. The humor arises from direct observation and playful exaggeration, not from a subtle subversion of narrative claims.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- Each poem presents a self-contained portrait or anecdote about a cat, offering a clear sense of closure for that particular vignette. There are no overarching plotlines left unresolved or significant ambiguities that require the reader to grapple with open-ended meaning. The 'ineffable name' of a cat, for example, is presented as a characteristic rather than an enigma for the reader to solve.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- The collection consists of individual, self-contained poems, each employing a conventional verse structure without experimental forms. There are no complex timeline jumps, shifts in narrative perspective, or fragmented chronologies that challenge the reader structurally. Each poem presents its subject clearly and linearly, making the overall structure highly accessible.
How Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is regarded
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats 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.