The Verbal Icon by W.K. Wimsatt
Published 1954 · 55,000 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
How hard is The Verbal Icon to read?
The Verbal Icon scores 60 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: 65 out of 100
- Academic critical prose with philosophical undertones. Clear but precise — every term is carefully defined.
- Sentence structure: 62 out of 100
- Well-organized argumentative prose. Wimsatt writes clearly and logically.
- Abstraction: 78 out of 100
- Theoretical arguments about the nature of meaning in literature. The fallacy essays are highly abstract; other essays include close readings.
- Information density: 75 out of 100
- Dense critical argument. The fallacy essays in particular pack complex philosophical positions into compressed prose.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Direct philosophical argument. Wimsatt states his positions and defends them systematically.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Analytical throughout. No symbolic dimension.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Academic seriousness with occasional dry wit.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- The essays take clear positions. Wimsatt argues for specific conclusions.
- Structural complexity: 30 out of 100
- Collection of independent essays, each well-organized. The two fallacy essays are models of clarity.
How The Verbal Icon is regarded
The Verbal Icon holds a literary regard score of 79 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.