SPQR by Mary Beard
Published 2015 · 672 pages · 160,000 words · about 11 hours at an average pace · History, Nonfiction
How hard is SPQR to read?
SPQR scores 29 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: 38 out of 100
- Latin terms and Roman institutions explained clearly for general readers.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Abstraction: 40 out of 100
- Analytical framework about citizenship and power underlies the narrative.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- A thousand years of history with archaeological and textual evidence.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- Thematic organization within broadly chronological structure.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Analytical rather than symbolic. Rome itself is examined rather than used as metaphor.
- Ironic distance: 35 out of 100
- Beard writes with sharp wit and frequently debunks received wisdom.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Ends at 212 CE rather than 476 CE, deliberately reframing the 'decline' narrative.
- Structural complexity: 30 out of 100
- Chronological with thematic chapters. Clear organization.
How SPQR is regarded
SPQR holds a literary regard score of 54 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.