Scottish Literature in English and Scots by Douglas Gifford
Published 2002 · 180,000 words · about 15 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Scottish Literature in English and Scots to read?
Scottish Literature in English and Scots 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: 58 out of 100
- Clear scholarly survey prose accessible to advanced undergraduates.
- Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
- Abstraction: 62 out of 100
- Primarily descriptive and analytic rather than theoretically ambitious.
- Information density: 80 out of 100
- Enormous information load; the volume is encyclopedic in its coverage of authors, works, and periods.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Systematic survey structure with transparent organization and chronological progression.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Analytic rather than figurative critical prose throughout.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Earnest and respectful tone toward the subject of Scottish literary heritage.
- Resolution withholding: 80 out of 100
- Survey format resolves each section clearly; no deliberate ambiguity.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Complex multi-author organization with six period divisions and layered chapter structure.
How Scottish Literature in English and Scots is regarded
Scottish Literature in English and Scots holds a literary regard score of 79 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.