Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Published 1962 · 272 pages · 63,201 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Coming-of-Age, Fantasy, Horror

How hard is Something Wicked This Way Comes to read?

Something Wicked This Way Comes scores 64 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: 68 out of 100
Bradbury employs a rich, evocative vocabulary that often uses common words in unusual, poetic combinations, such as 'moon-flesh' or 'fire-fuzzed cheeks.' While not laden with archaic terms like 'Ulysses,' the text features literary words like 'ironmongery,' 'rococo,' 'perambulated,' 'panoply,' and 'vellumed' that elevate it beyond accessible contemporary fiction, approaching the level of 'Moby-Dick' in its specialized descriptive power.
Sentence structure: 72 out of 100
The novel features long, flowing sentences with extensive use of subordinate clauses, appositives, and descriptive phrases, often connected by 'and' or commas, creating a breathless, cumulative effect. Sentences frequently extend for several lines, building intricate images and thoughts, reminiscent of Proustian subordination, though generally more navigable than Faulkner's extreme hypotaxis.
Abstraction: 70 out of 100
While grounded in a concrete narrative of two boys and a carnival, the text frequently delves into philosophical musings on time, death, good vs. evil, and the nature of human desire, particularly through Charles Halloway's internal monologues. These digressions into metaphysics and existential questions elevate the abstraction level significantly beyond a simple adventure story, aligning it closer to '2666' or 'Brothers Karamazov' in its thematic depth.
Information density: 75 out of 100
Bradbury packs each paragraph with dense, sensory details, metaphors, and symbolic imagery, requiring sustained attention to fully grasp the layers of meaning. The narrative progresses with a constant stream of new concepts and vivid descriptions, from the carnival's grotesque attractions to Halloway's philosophical insights, demanding a high level of reader engagement similar to '2666' in its rich texture and thematic layering.
Narrative indirection: 60 out of 100
Bradbury's evocative prose often describes the supernatural and emotional states in metaphorical terms, requiring readers to infer deeper meanings about the carnival's true nature and the characters' internal struggles. However, core plot events and character feelings are generally conveyed clearly, with Charles Halloway's philosophical monologues providing direct, albeit abstract, attempts at understanding. This blend places it above direct exposition like '1984' but below the pure implication of 'Pedro Paramo'.
Symbolic density: 78 out of 100
The novel is exceptionally rich in symbolism, with the carnival itself serving as a pervasive allegory for temptation, time, and the battle between good and evil. Characters like Jim and Will are presented as symbolic foils, and elements such as the carousel, mirror maze, and Mr. Dark's tattoos are deeply imbued with thematic significance. This density is more pronounced than in 'The Great Gatsby' due to the explicit philosophical discussions and the pervasive allegorical framework.
Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
The narrative maintains a tone of wonder, dread, and philosophical sincerity, largely aligning with the characters' experiences rather than creating a significant gap between what is said and what is meant by the author. While Mr. Dark and the carnival members employ manipulative and darkly ironic language, the overall narrative voice is earnest in its exploration of the story's themes. This is a lower score than books like 'Lolita' where unreliable narration is central to the ironic distance.
Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
The excerpt concludes with the central conflict far from resolved, leaving the ultimate fates of the characters and the carnival's true power highly ambiguous. Key mysteries, such as the full extent of the carnival's influence and the characters' ability to combat it, remain open-ended. This resistance to definitive closure is more pronounced than in 'The Great Gatsby' but less absolute than 'Crying of Lot 49'.
Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
The narrative follows a predominantly linear chronology, primarily from the perspectives of Will and Jim, with clear shifts to Charles Halloway's internal monologues. While the prose is highly descriptive and poetic, the structure itself does not feature experimental elements like fragmented timelines, multiple non-linear POVs, or complex formal devices. The chapter progression is straightforward, making it less structurally complex than 'The Great Gatsby' or 'Flights'.

How Something Wicked This Way Comes is regarded

Something Wicked This Way Comes holds a literary regard score of 74 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.

Where Something Wicked This Way Comes sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (126 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Something Wicked This Way Comes scores 48 out of 100. A second mythos, tragedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
Nothing extraordinary about me except I'm fifty-four, which is always extraordinary to the man inside it.
Symbol: Mythical (Archetypal)
For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond.
Mythos: Romance Phase 3 — The Quest (romance iii)
Number three, Mr. Dark and his skinful of souls. Save one, kick the other two to hell and gone.
Genre: Romance + Novel
The Illustrated Man, stripped to the waist, all nightmare viper, sabertooth, libidinous ape, clotted vulture

Where the story of Something Wicked This Way Comes takes place

  • Green Town, Illinois, a late-October week (24-28 Oct.) (1920 to 1955), the main setting
  • Earlier Cooger & Dark visits recorded in old newspapers (1846 to 1910)

5 things that are true of Something Wicked This Way Comes, with the passage for each

  1. Will and Jim were born one minute apart on either side of midnight, October 30 and 31.

    I was born one minute before midnight, October thirtieth, Jim was born one minute after midnight, which makes it October thirty-first.

  2. The boys count the carousel running backwards twenty-eight times to turn Mr Cooger into a twelve-year-old.

    'Twenty-eight!' gasped Jim, 'Twenty-eight times!'

  3. Mr Dark carries tattooed portraits of Will and Jim on his palms.

    Tattooed in bright blue ink, Will's face gazed up at him from the palm of the right hand.

  4. Charles Halloway is fifty-four years old.

    Nothing extraordinary about me except I'm fifty-four, which is always extraordinary to the man inside it.

  5. Halloway silently tells the Witch that the mark on the bullet is his own smile.

    I have put my smile on the bullet in the rifle.

Scenes in Something Wicked This Way Comes that Frye would name

39 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Sparagmos, untitled
It seemed a huge wax hand shrivelled by fire. Cooger's body is torn through a century of years by the runaway carousel.
Agon, untitled
'Stop tickling!' he gasped. Halloway defeats the Witch with laughter, the first victory of the book's central contest.
Pathos, untitled
The woman was lifted and put on the platform. Her mouth was frozen open, almost with a look of recognition. The Dust Witch dies in the bullet trick, killed by a smile.
Agon, untitled
I will do good to you, Jed, Mr. Dark, Mr. Proprietor, boy, until you tell what's wrong with Jim. The final confrontation, in which Halloway starves Mr Dark with kindness.
Cognitio, untitled
They yanked Jim. Jim flew. Jim came down dancing. Laughter and dance restore Jim to life and to the community of father and son.
Anagnorisis, untitled
The fact is…she looked like myself, many, many years ago. Miss Foley recognises her own younger self in the maze, the first mirror recognition.

Books that share these scenes with Something Wicked This Way Comes

About the author

Ray Bradbury