Analyzing Literature by Words and Numbers

December 4, 2010 - 4:22am — Bibliofuture

A new computer-generated process is giving scholars a prism into Victorian thought.

Victorians were enamored of the new science of statistics, so it seems fitting that these pioneering data hounds are now the subject of an unusual experiment in statistical analysis. The titles of every British book published in English in and around the 19th century — 1,681,161, to be exact — are being electronically scoured for key words and phrases that might offer fresh insight into the minds of the Victorians.

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