The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 vs Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2)
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
2,894words between them — 12 min of it
The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 is longer — 173,718 words against 170,824 for Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2), a difference of 2,894 words or about 12 min of extra reading. Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2) is the harder read, at grade 11.8 against 9.6.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 | Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2) | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Thackeray, William Makepeace | Reumont, Alfred von |
| Words | 173,718 | 170,824 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 11h 35m | 11h 23m |
| Unique words | 13,461 | 12,573 |
| Sentences | 7,527 | 7,475 |
| Average sentence length | 23.1 words | 22.9 words |
| Reading grade | 9.6 | 11.8 |
| Reading ease | 67.4 | 50.8 |
| Long words | 8.1% | 16% |
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 = |173,718 − 170,824| = 2,894 words 2,894 ÷ 250 wpm = 12 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 or Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2)?
The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 is longer — 173,718 words against 170,824 for Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2), a difference of 2,894 words or about 12 min of extra reading. Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2) is the harder read, at grade 11.8 against 9.6.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 9904 and no. 50624 — 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.
