The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse vs Children's Literature
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
26,354words between them — 1h 45m of it
The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse is longer — 405,855 words against 379,501 for Children's Literature, a difference of 26,354 words or about 1h 45m of extra reading. Children's Literature is the harder read, at grade 8.9 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 | Children's Literature | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Valmiki | Curry, Charles Madison |
| Words | 405,855 | 379,501 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 27h 03m | 25h 18m |
| Unique words | 16,900 | 20,119 |
| Sentences | 18,813 | 16,705 |
| Average sentence length | 21.6 words | 22.7 words |
| Reading grade | 7.8 | 8.9 |
| Reading ease | 77.8 | 71.9 |
| Long words | 4.4% | 6.3% |
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 − 379,501| = 26,354 words 26,354 ÷ 250 wpm = 1h 45m of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse or Children's Literature?
The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse is longer — 405,855 words against 379,501 for Children's Literature, a difference of 26,354 words or about 1h 45m of extra reading. Children's Literature is the harder read, at grade 8.9 against 7.8.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 24869 and no. 25545 — 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.
