The English Novel: A Short Critical History by Walter Allen
Published 1954 · 454 pages · 90,000 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is The English Novel: A Short Critical History to read?
The English Novel: A Short Critical History scores 45 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: 50 out of 100
- Deliberately accessible; Allen writes for general readers as much as specialists.
- Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Evaluative and historical rather than theoretical.
- Information density: 68 out of 100
- Covers an enormous range efficiently with brief but pointed judgments.
- Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
- Direct survey argument throughout.
- Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
- Analytical and evaluative.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Occasional dry wit but generally earnest.
- Resolution withholding: 80 out of 100
- Allen delivers verdicts clearly.
- Structural complexity: 28 out of 100
- Straightforward chronological organization.
How The English Novel: A Short Critical History is regarded
The English Novel: A Short Critical History holds a literary regard score of 67 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.