The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse vs An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
27,343words between them — 1h 49m of it
The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse is longer — 405,855 words against 378,512 for An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a difference of 27,343 words or about 1h 49m of extra reading. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the harder read, at grade 14.8 against 7.8.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse | An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Valmiki | Smith, Adam |
| Words | 405,855 | 378,512 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 27h 03m | 25h 14m |
| Unique words | 16,900 | 9,836 |
| Sentences | 18,813 | 11,984 |
| Average sentence length | 21.6 words | 31.6 words |
| Reading grade | 7.8 | 14.8 |
| Reading ease | 77.8 | 45.4 |
| Long words | 4.4% | 13.9% |
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 = |405,855 − 378,512| = 27,343 words 27,343 ÷ 250 wpm = 1h 49m of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse or An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations?
The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse is longer — 405,855 words against 378,512 for An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a difference of 27,343 words or about 1h 49m of extra reading. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the harder read, at grade 14.8 against 7.8.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 24869 and no. 3300 — 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.
