From prose Hemingway always aimed at an expressive economy: virtually telegraphic writing. But it was an exception to the norm, because in 30 years the great novels were mostly characterized by broad vocabulary. The actual trend is quite different.
Recent surveys and market analyzes show this the structure of the literary language is simplified in an accelerated form. From fiction to political communication, speeches are now significantly shorter and less complete than in the past few years.
In the literary field, their analysis best seller included in the list The New York Times arroja dull data. Since the 1930s, the average sentence length in popular books has decreased by 40%.
He published the graphic The Economist we illustrate this trend clearly: while in the 30s, the average is within 20 words per sentence —with many popular promediando novels between 20 and 25 words—, now This data has a value of up to 12 words.
This synthetic transition is evident when we compare the results of events from different periods. The distance between the completeness of literature and actual simplicity is remarkable. For example, in the 1940s, novels like this one French Creekby Daphne du Maurier, maintained a much higher average words per sentence, rounding to 20.
Por su parte, en best seller contemporáneos como Break the circle (It ends with us), de Colleen Hooverthe average hardly exceeds 10 or 12 words per hour. So this short version is like a quick and simple text search.
This development of the editorial market is reflected in the academic sphere, where teachers see more and more difficulties for students to master classical texts. Experiments conducted at universities in the United States show this English literature graduates face serious problems deciphering the prose of Victorian authors such as Charles Dickenslost in legal language, extended metaphors and decimal vocabulary.
The data reflects this perception of the slope ability to concentrate and read in depth. The following is a study published in the journal iSciencethe percentage of people who are happy in the United States has fallen by 40% over the past two decades. In the UK, YouGov reports that 40% of the population will not have read a single book by 2024.
In Spain without the embargo, 66.2% of the population read books in 2025 (three of each). Barometer of reading habits which is drawn up every year by the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España (FGEE).
However, experts remember that although distraction has become a historical constant, every day if you have lost the “impulse of personal improvement” which characterized the working classes of the XVIII and XIX centuries.
The simplification of language is not limited to entertainment literature; It penetrated institutional and political communication with possible consequences for democratic quality. An analysis of British parliamentary speeches shows they have fallen by a third in just ten years.
That’s what experts like Professor Jonathan Bate advise you losing the ability to process complete prose builds the mind in the ability to develop sophisticated ideasunderstand mathematics and reconcile conflicting ideas. In a digital environment where the average thought is limited to a few characters, the critical capacity that supports deep reading is subject to a residual risk of digression.
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