Absalom, Absalom! vs Tender Is the Night: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Fiction
Absalom, Absalom!
“From a little after two oclock until almost sundown of the long still hot weary dead September afternoon they sat in what Miss Coldfield still called the office because her father had called it that -- a dim hot airless room with the blinds all closed and fastened for forty-three summers because when she was a girl someone had believed that light and moving air carried heat and that dark was alway”
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The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who wanted sons…
Tender Is the Night
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A psychiatrist, Dick Diver, treats and eventually marries a wealthy patient, Nicole. Eventually, this marriage destroys him.
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate Absalom, Absalom! highest: Absalom, Absalom! 4.1 · Tender Is the Night 3.8.
- Tender Is the Night has the widest readership — 153550 ratings behind its score.
- Tender Is the Night runs the darker storyline; Absalom, Absalom! stays the lighter read.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| Absalom, Absalom! | Tender Is the Night | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 3.8 (153550) |
| Hardcover | 4.2 (74) | 3.7 (148) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (90) | 4.0 (163) |
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Reception
| Absalom, Absalom! | Tender Is the Night | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 90 | 153550 |
| Editions | 58 | 312 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 239033 |
| Reading it now | — | 10782 |
| Written reviews | — | 8884 |
| Wikipedia attention | 14664 | 12232 |
| Pages | 321 | 399 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Absalom, Absalom! or Tender Is the Night?
Absalom, Absalom! has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Absalom, Absalom! 4.1/5, Tender Is the Night 3.8/5).
Which is shorter to read: Absalom, Absalom! or Tender Is the Night?
Absalom, Absalom! is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Absalom, Absalom! (321 pages, ≈ 5 h 57 m); Tender Is the Night (399 pages, ≈ 7 h 23 m).
Which is harder to read: Absalom, Absalom! or Tender Is the Night?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Absalom, Absalom!: Demanding; Tender Is the Night: Challenging.
Have both books been made into films?
Absalom, Absalom!: no film adaptation on record; Tender Is the Night: 1 film adaptation.