Public-domain classics, explained
Classic novels, explained in six sentences.
We read each book in full, write six sentences of our own, and draw three figures from its text: the mood of the wording, who is named when, and who shares a paragraph with whom.
- Pride and Prejudice, 1813121,850
- Frankenstein, 181871,876
- Jane Eyre, 1847186,163
- Moby-Dick, 1851209,384
- Dracula, 1897161,057
- The Great Gatsby, 192548,402
- Six novels798,732
Every word of every book, from the public-domain text, before we write a line.
Books
6
Words read by our scripts
798,732
Sentences per book
6
Figures per book
3
The shelf
Six novels, oldest first.
Each one is public domain in the US, free to read in full, and long enough to deserve a short way in.
How we read
Three steps. One short page.
No study guides copied, no summaries rewritten. The book itself is the main source.
- 01We read the whole text.The full public-domain edition from Project Gutenberg, plus at least two reputable sources on the book and its author.
- 02We write six sentences.What the book is about, how it is built, its central tension, a theme, what our data shows, and why it lasts. Our own words.
- 03We draw three figures.The mood of the wording, who is named when, and who shares a paragraph with whom, all counted from the text.
From the text itself
A comedy that never drops below zero.
Every one of the forty slices of Pride and Prejudice scores above zero for tone. The dips are where the story turns.
- Ch 21–23Polite letters, quiet setbacks
- Ch 33–35Angry words at Hunsford
- Ch 46Alarming news from home
- Ch 56Lady Catherine's furious visit
We split the novel into 40 equal slices of about 3,000 words and score each by the average VADER sentiment of its sentences, from −1 (most negative) to +1 (most positive); the line is a five-slice moving average, and the dotted line is neutral. Every slice scores above zero, so the dips matter more than the sign.
Computed by us from the Project Gutenberg text · VADER sentiment · 121,850 words