On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Published 1859 · 199,290 words · about 10 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is On the Origin of Species to read?
On the Origin of Species scores 36 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
- Victorian scientific prose. Natural history terminology.
- Sentence structure: 42 out of 100
- Abstraction: 45 out of 100
- Abstract evolutionary theory grounded in natural observation.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Dense with evidence from multiple fields.
- Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
- Systematic argument with extensive evidence.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- The tangled bank as closing image. Otherwise analytical.
- Ironic distance: 80 out of 100
- Courteous, measured Victorian tone.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Darwin presents his theory as established but ongoing.
- Structural complexity: 32 out of 100
- Fourteen chapters of systematic argumentation.
How On the Origin of Species is regarded
On the Origin of Species holds a literary regard score of 52 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.