The Republic of Plato vs The Beth Book
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
1,497words between them — 6 min of it
The Republic of Plato is longer — 246,101 words against 244,604 for The Beth Book, a difference of 1,497 words or about 6 min of extra reading. The Republic of Plato is the harder read, at grade 8.8 against 8.5.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| The Republic of Plato | The Beth Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Plato | Grand, Sarah |
| Words | 246,101 | 244,604 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 16h 24m | 16h 18m |
| Unique words | 12,128 | 13,890 |
| Sentences | 12,802 | 11,813 |
| Average sentence length | 19.2 words | 20.7 words |
| Reading grade | 8.8 | 8.5 |
| Reading ease | 66.3 | 71.3 |
| Long words | 10.9% | 7.7% |
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 = |246,101 − 244,604| = 1,497 words 1,497 ÷ 250 wpm = 6 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The Republic of Plato or The Beth Book?
The Republic of Plato is longer — 246,101 words against 244,604 for The Beth Book, a difference of 1,497 words or about 6 min of extra reading. The Republic of Plato is the harder read, at grade 8.8 against 8.5.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 55201 and no. 28088 — 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.
