The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
Published 1839 · 481 pages · 200,798 words · about 13 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romance
How hard is The Charterhouse of Parma to read?
The Charterhouse of Parma scores 62 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: 62 out of 100
- Stendhal clear, rapid prose. Some period political and social vocabulary.
- Sentence structure: 58 out of 100
- Stendhal preferred speed to elaboration. Sentences move quickly forward.
- Abstraction: 65 out of 100
- Psychological analysis embedded in narrative momentum. Politics treated with ironic abstraction.
- Information density: 68 out of 100
- Packed with political intrigue, psychological observation, and action. Stendhal never lingers.
- Narrative indirection: 62 out of 100
- Ironic narrator who comments while maintaining sympathy. Free indirect style throughout.
- Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
- Stendhal realism resists heavy symbolism. The tower acquires meaning through narrative.
- Ironic distance: 75 out of 100
- Sustained ironic perspective on politics and society. Passion treated seriously within ironic frame.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Multiple plot resolutions but meaning remains complex. The ending is swift and somewhat arbitrary.
- Structural complexity: 60 out of 100
- Sprawling narrative with multiple plot strands. Famous openness to digression.
How The Charterhouse of Parma is regarded
The Charterhouse of Parma 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.