Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' vs The History of Pendennis, Volume 2
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
101words between them — 0 min of it
Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' is longer — 173,819 words against 173,718 for The History of Pendennis, Volume 2, a difference of 101 words or about 0 min of extra reading. The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 is the harder read, at grade 9.6 against 8.7.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' | The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Bradford, William | Thackeray, William Makepeace |
| Words | 173,819 | 173,718 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 11h 35m | 11h 35m |
| Unique words | 12,074 | 13,461 |
| Sentences | 8,025 | 7,527 |
| Average sentence length | 21.7 words | 23.1 words |
| Reading grade | 8.7 | 9.6 |
| Reading ease | 71.5 | 67.4 |
| Long words | 7.2% | 8.1% |
Highlighted cells are the larger figure — except reading ease, where higher means easier.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions, same counting rule·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How this is worked out
- Both texts are counted the same way, from the same source, with Gutenberg's header and licence footer struck first.
- The gap is stated in words and then in time at 250 words a minute — the rate is printed because a duration without one cannot be checked.
- Difficulty is compared on Flesch–Kincaid grade, which reads sentence and word length only. It cannot see irony or dialect, so treat it as a measure of surface, not of effort.
gap = |173,819 − 173,718| = 101 words 101 ÷ 250 wpm = 0 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' or The History of Pendennis, Volume 2?
Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' is longer — 173,819 words against 173,718 for The History of Pendennis, Volume 2, a difference of 101 words or about 0 min of extra reading. The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 is the harder read, at grade 9.6 against 8.7.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 24950 and no. 9904 — and from no other source. Neither book’s text is set on this site.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·US public domain·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Word counts and reading levels are computed from a specific public-domain edition and will differ from other editions and from other counting methods — see the method page.
