Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges by Jorge Luis Borges

Published 1962 · 78,650 words · about 5 hours at an average pace

How hard is Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges to read?

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges scores 77 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very 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: 75 out of 100
Erudite and deliberately archaic, with invented terminology.
Sentence structure: 72 out of 100
Formal, precise, Latinate sentences.
Abstraction: 88 out of 100
Infinity, identity and time treated as fiction's subject matter.
Information density: 82 out of 100
Extraordinarily dense — a story can carry a library.
Narrative indirection: 68 out of 100
Frequently framed as reviews, footnotes and reports by unreliable scholars.
Symbolic density: 82 out of 100
The labyrinth, the mirror and the library run through everything.
Ironic distance: 72 out of 100
Sustained scholarly deadpan about invented sources.
Resolution withholding: 78 out of 100
Most stories end on a paradox rather than an answer.
Structural complexity: 82 out of 100
Fictions disguised as essays, reviews and encyclopaedia entries.

How Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges is regarded

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges holds a literary regard score of 94 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.

About the author

Jorge Luis Borges