The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert
Published 1874 · 69,194 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Philosophical Fiction
How hard is The Temptation of Saint Anthony to read?
The Temptation of Saint Anthony scores 58 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: 70 out of 100
- Dense with theological, philosophical, and mythological terminology from dozens of religious traditions. Requires familiarity with early Christian heresies and comparative religion.
- Sentence structure: 65 out of 100
- Written as dramatic prose with long visionary passages. The hallucinatory catalogue sections pile clause upon clause in rhythmic waves.
- Abstraction: 70 out of 100
- Engages directly with theology, epistemology, and cosmology. Entire chapters consist of philosophical arguments presented in dramatic form.
- Information density: 70 out of 100
- An encyclopedia of world religions compressed into a single night's vision. Each heretical sect, each dying god, is presented with scholarly precision.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- The dramatic form and the hallucinatory framework mean the reader must distinguish between Anthony's actual experience and the Devil's theatrical productions.
- Symbolic density: 70 out of 100
- Every figure, every apparition is simultaneously a historical entity and a symbol of a philosophical position. The desert, the cell, and the night sky are layered with meaning.
- Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
- Flaubert's sympathy for Anthony coexists with an implicit recognition that the hermit's faith and the heresies he rejects may be equally delusional.
- Resolution withholding: 45 out of 100
- Anthony survives the night and sees the face of Christ in the rising sun — but whether this confirms his faith or is simply the last and greatest hallucination remains open.
- Structural complexity: 55 out of 100
- Seven chapters of escalating visions organized as a dramatic poem. The lack of conventional plot and the encyclopedic cataloguing create a structure unlike any novel.
How The Temptation of Saint Anthony is regarded
The Temptation of Saint Anthony holds a literary regard score of 70 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.