The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
Published 2015 · 1 pages · 120,000 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Biography, History, Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is The Invention of Nature to read?
The Invention of Nature scores 26 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: 35 out of 100
- Scientific and geographical terminology. Accessible popular science prose.
- Sentence structure: 32 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Scientific concepts embedded in biographical narrative.
- Information density: 52 out of 100
- Dense with geographical, scientific, and biographical detail.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Chronological biography with thematic connections. Direct storytelling.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Humboldt's 'web of life' is the central concept. Otherwise literal biography.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Enthusiastic, admiring tone. Wulf champions her subject.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Biographical narrative with a clear arc.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Chronological with thematic interludes about Humboldt's influence.
How The Invention of Nature is regarded
The Invention of Nature holds a literary regard score of 44 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.