The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Published 1791 · 64,525 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Biography, Memoir & Autobiography, Nonfiction

How hard is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin to read?

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin scores 43 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: 68 out of 100
Franklin employs a formal 18th-century lexicon, featuring terms like 'polemic divinity,' 'indentures,' 'perspicuity,' and 'factotum.' While not as dense with specialized jargon as Moby-Dick, the frequent use of archaic words and period-specific terminology demands a higher-than-average vocabulary from the reader. Readers without familiarity with 18th-century prose conventions will encounter regular unfamiliar usages.
Sentence structure: 65 out of 100
Franklin's prose features extended sentences with multiple subordinate clauses and periodic structures, characteristic of 18th-century writing. While generally clear and logically structured, these lengthy constructions and occasional inversions require sustained attention to parse, exceeding the demands of contemporary fiction. The syntax rewards patience and repays close reading.
Abstraction: 70 out of 100
While primarily a narrative autobiography, Franklin consistently elevates his personal experiences into reflections on moral philosophy, political theory, and civic principles. Chapters like 'Plan For Attaining Moral Perfection' delve into abstract concepts of virtue and human nature, requiring readers to engage with theoretical content alongside concrete events. The tension between Franklin's empiricism and his idealism operates throughout at a conceptual level.
Information density: 72 out of 100
The narrative is highly compressed, packing numerous projects, civic initiatives, and personal reflections into a relatively short space. Franklin rapidly introduces new concepts, characters, and historical details, requiring readers to process a high volume of information and maintain continuous focus to follow the intricate developments of his life and work. Each paragraph often advances multiple threads simultaneously.
Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100
Franklin's narrative is highly direct, explicitly stating his intentions, lessons learned, and the moral implications of his experiences, such as his 'errata of my life.' He often provides clear explanations for his actions and observations, leaving little for the reader to infer beyond the surface meaning of events. The self-aware irony is present but transparent.
Symbolic density: 25 out of 100
The autobiography is largely a literal account of Franklin's life and practical philosophy, with minimal pervasive symbolic elements. While anecdotes like the 'speckled ax' serve as clear allegories for moral lessons, their meaning is explicitly stated rather than left to deep reader interpretation. The narrative prioritizes direct instruction over ambiguous symbolic resonance.
Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
Franklin often employs a gentle, self-aware irony, particularly when recounting his youthful follies or the foibles of others, as seen in his 'proud of my humility' reflection. While he sometimes presents events with a knowing wink, the gap between what is said and what is meant is generally transparent and serves to enhance his persona as a wise, experienced observer rather than to mislead the reader.
Resolution withholding: 30 out of 100
Franklin's autobiography, though unfinished, is a chronological account that generally provides clear outcomes and resolutions for the events and individuals he describes. The narrative explicitly addresses the reasons for its interruptions and the fates of various characters, indicating a desire for clarity and closure rather than intentional ambiguity.
Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
The autobiography follows a predominantly linear, chronological structure, recounting Franklin's life experiences in a straightforward manner. While there are occasional explicit digressions, these are clearly indicated and do not disrupt the overall sequential flow or introduce complex formal experiments. The work's four parts were written across decades but maintain consistent voice and perspective.

How The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is regarded

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin holds a literary regard score of 85 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 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (118 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin scores 58 out of 100. A second mythos, irony, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other.
Symbol: Formal
to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores through the streets on a wheelbarrow.
Mythos: Comedy ii (quixotic: the hero constructs his own society) (comedy ii)
one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan
Genre: Confession + Novel
Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions

Where the story of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin takes place

  • Colonial Philadelphia and Britain, 1706-1788 (1706 to 1788), the main setting
  • Boston, 1706-1723: boyhood, apprenticeship to James (1706 to 1723)
  • Philadelphia and colonial Pennsylvania, 1723-1757 (1723 to 1757)
  • London printing-houses, 1724-1726 (1724 to 1726)
  • Braddock's campaign and the Pennsylvania frontier forts, 1755-1756 (1755 to 1756)

5 things that are true of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, with the passage for each

  1. Josiah Franklin had seventeen children by two wives.

    in all seventeen; of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his table

  2. Franklin reaches Philadelphia with only a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper.

    my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling in copper.

  3. Franklin boasts of having stood before five kings, one of whom, the King of Denmark, he dined with.

    I have stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner.

  4. Franklin's moral scheme originally listed twelve virtues, and humility was added after a Quaker friend called him proud.

    My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud

  5. At Braddock's defeat, 714 of 1,100 picked men were killed.

    out of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven hundred.

Scenes in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin that Frye would name

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

Confession, 1. Ancestry And Early Youth In Boston
Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions The opening letter sets up the sustained introverted autobiographical register and admits vanity as a motive.
Eiron, 2. Beginning Life As A Printer
I was charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter. Franklin deliberately adopts the Socratic eiron's pose of the humble inquirer and uses it to unravel his opponents.
Anagnorisis, 6. First Visit To London
I was surprised to find these were not the governor's letters; and, after recollecting and comparing circumstances, I began to doubt his sincerity. Franklin discovers that Keith's promised letters of credit never existed, a recognition that reorients his London adventure.
Eiron, 9. Plan For Attaining Moral Perfection
even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility. The self-deprecating joke against his own virtue is the book's characteristic eiron stroke.
Anatomy, 9. Plan For Attaining Moral Perfection
I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept The catalogue of thirteen virtues with precepts, ruled tables and daily schedule is an encyclopedic, schematic anatomy of conduct.
Anagnorisis, 9. Plan For Attaining Moral Perfection
a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud A friend's report forces a self-recognition and the addition of humility to the list of virtues.

Books that share these scenes with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

About the author

Benjamin Franklin