K6. Humour beats. AI
Reader effect. One line per book. Open a book for the full answer, charts and cited lines.
| Book | Genre | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Treasure Island | Thriller and adventure | Humour beats include Silver's quick thinking when caught with Black Dog (c8), the mutineers' superstitious terror at Flint's ghost (c32), and Jim's youthful boldness commanding the ship (c25). Comedy undercuts … |
| The Thirty-Nine Steps | Thriller and adventure | Dry humour appears in Hannay's self-aware narration. Chapter 5 contains the best comedy: his admission of becoming 'an unholy liar' and 'highwayman'. The roadman disguise and Marmie's car theft provide absurd relief. … |
| The Prisoner of Zenda | Thriller and adventure | Chapter 9's tea-table fight is the main comedy beat. Chapter 12 has light moments with Johann. Chapter 15 has Rupert's audacious offer. Chapter 22 has gentle irony about Rudolf's return to England. Humour is sparse … |
| Around the World in Eighty Days | Thriller and adventure | Humour peaks in Passepartout's temple incident (chapter 10), his acrobatic performance (chapter 23), and Fix's repeated failures (chapters 5 to 19). The buffalo herd delay (chapter 26) and the Mormon lecture (chapter … |
| King Solomon's Mines | Thriller and adventure | Humour beats are sparse: Good's false teeth impressing the Kukuanas (chapter 7), the recovery of his lost trousers (chapter 12), Quatermain's dry asides about danger. Humour is brief and serves to humanise rather … |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Crime and mystery | Humour is dry and sparse. Holmes's deduction from the stick amuses through precision. The spy's false name as 'Sherlock Holmes' offers irony. Watson's misreadings provide gentle comedy. Humour is subordinate to … |
| A Study in Scarlet | Crime and mystery | Humour is dry and sparse. Holmes's superiority over Lestrade and Gregson provides mild comedy (chapters 6 to 7). Watson's confusion at Holmes's methods offers light moments (chapter 2). The final Latin quote about money … |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Crime and mystery | Humour comes from Holmes's dismissal of Watson, Watson's bewilderment, and ironic reversals. Ch2 is comic when the Red-headed League is absurd. Ch7 is light when Holmes deduces a man's life from a hat. Ch3 has gentle … |
| The Moonstone | Crime and mystery | Humour beats: Betteredge consulting Robinson Crusoe for life advice (ch5, 8, 26); Miss Clack's failed evangelical schemes and obliviousness (ch28 to 35); Sergeant Cuff abandoning the case to discuss roses with a … |
| The Woman in White | Crime and mystery | Comedy beats: Pesca's exuberant gratitude (ch 1 to 2), Mr. Fairlie's nervous fussiness (ch 6), Mrs. Vesey's passivity (ch 7), Gilmore's legal frustrations (ch 17), the housekeeper's observations (ch 30). Humour is … |
| Pride and Prejudice | Romance | Humour beats are frequent: Mr. Collins's obsequiousness, Mrs. Bennet's tactlessness, Elizabeth's witty remarks to Darcy, the absurdity of the entail, Lady Catherine's imperious manner. Comedy comes from character … |
| Persuasion | Romance | Humour peaks in Sir Walter's vanity, the Musgrove family's cheerful disorder, and Mr Elliot's transparent flattery. Mary Musgrove's complaints provide comic relief. The gap between characters' self-regard and reality … |
| Emma | Romance | Humour beats: Elton's charade (c9, q22); Frank's hair-cutting trip (c25, q60 to 61); Mrs. Elton's constant Maple Grove references (c21 to 36); Miss Bates's endless chatter (c19); the pianoforte mystery (c26 to 28). Comic … |
| Jane Eyre | Romance | Humour is sparse and dry. Jane's resistance to Rochester's flattery (chapter 24) creates comedy through her blunt refusal. The gypsy fortune-teller scene (chapter 19) uses irony when Jane recognises Rochester. St. … |
| Dracula | Gothic and horror | Humour is rare and dark. Seward's unrequited love provides grim irony. Renfield's cryptic remarks ('I am very sleepy') offer macabre comedy. The men's Victorian earnestness contrasts absurdly with their task. … |
| Frankenstein | Gothic and horror | Humour is nearly absent. The closest to comedy is Walton's earnest ambition (chapter 1) contrasted with his rescue of a dying man fleeing the very thing he seeks (chapter 4). The creature's eloquent demand for a mate … |
| Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | Gothic and horror | Humour is sparse and dark. Utterson's habit of drinking gin alone to mortify his taste for wine provides dry comedy. Enfield's description of Hyde as 'troglodytic' offers sardonic relief. The overall tone is too … |
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | Gothic and horror | Humour works through Lord Henry's paradoxical epigrams (quote 1 on being talked about, quote 5 on influence). The comedy becomes darker as Dorian's crimes mount. Ironic contrasts between his beautiful appearance and … |
| Wuthering Heights | Gothic and horror | Humour sparse and dark. Lockwood's dog attacks and social awkwardness (chapters 1 to 2) provide comic relief. Nelly's dry asides about character folly. Joseph's dialect speech offers comic contrast. Humour undercuts … |
| The Turn of the Screw | Gothic and horror | Dark humour appears in Miles's claim he went out to seem bad 'as a joke' (c11) and his piano playing while Flora escapes (c18). The comedy is grim and undercuts the governess's authority. |
| The Time Machine | Science fiction | Humour is rare and dry. Filby's stubborn argument (c1-c2) is mildly comic. The Time Traveller's self-aware comment about wrong theories (c6) is wry. His observation that the Eloi are fools (c5) is darkly funny. The … |
| The War of the Worlds | Science fiction | Humour is rare. Chapter 7 has mild irony when terror falls away like a garment. Chapter 24 has dry irony about the artilleryman's impractical schemes. The book is primarily serious and tragic. |
| The Invisible Man | Science fiction | Humour peaks in chapters 1 to 6: Cuss's pinched nose, Henfrey's discomfort, the dog bite, village gossip. The tone darkens after chapter 7. Late chapters have grim irony (Griffin's 'reign of terror' fails) but little … |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Fantasy and children's | Humour beats include the Caucus-race where everyone wins, the riddle with no answer, the croquet game with live creatures, the tea-party's nonsense, and Alice's recitations coming out wrong. Physical comedy (size … |
| The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | Fantasy and children's | The Cowardly Lion's shame and bravado create humour. The Scarecrow's worry about brains despite clever solutions is comic. Oz's exposure as a humbug using tricks is funny. The china people's fragility and vanity … |
| The Secret Garden | Fantasy and children's | Humour is gentle and character-driven. Martha's Yorkshire dialect creates comic misunderstandings (c4). Colin's imperious demands are funny before becoming touching (c14). Dickon's animal companions provide light … |
| The Wind in the Willows | Fantasy and children's | Comedy peaks in chapter 2 with the motor car crash, chapter 6 with Toad's arrest, chapter 8 with his disguise as a washerwoman, and chapter 10 with his repeated failures. Humour comes from Toad's vanity and the gap … |
| Great Expectations | Literary | Humour beats are frequent but never undercut the emotional stakes. Pumblechook's obsequiousness (chapters 9, 35), Trabb's boy's mockery (chapter 30), Mr. Pocket's helplessness (chapter 23), and Wemmick's dual life … |
| A Christmas Carol | Literary | Humour beats include Scrooge's disbelief at Marley's ghost (c1), his confusion during the spirits' visits (c2, c3), and his exuberant joy on Christmas morning when he declares himself 'as light as a feather, as happy … |
| The Great Gatsby | Literary | Humour appears in Daisy's wish to be a 'beautiful little fool', Tom's blunt statements, the absurdity of Gatsby's parties, and Wolfshiem's boasts about fixing the World Series. Humour undercuts sentiment and exposes … |
| Heart of Darkness | Literary | Humour is dark and sparse. The accountant's ledgers amid chaos, the pilgrims' ineffectual shooting, and the manager's petty concerns provide grim irony. Humour undercuts the Company's pretensions and highlights the … |
| Kidnapped | Thriller and adventure | Humour is dry and sparse. Ebenezer's panic (c4, c29) is darkly comic. Alan's boasts about his sword (c10, c26) are funny. Rankeillor's observations (c27 to 29) are witty. The boat theft (c26) has comic timing. Humour … |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | Thriller and adventure | Humour appears in Danglars' obsequiousness to Monte Cristo (chapter 46), Andrea's false identity and greed (chapters 55 to 56), and the absurdity of Parisian gossip (chapters 70, 76). Caderousse's schemes collapse … |
| The Three Musketeers | Thriller and adventure | Humour peaks in Chapter 7 with descriptions of the Musketeers' poverty and schemes. Porthos's pursuit of the procurator's wife (Chapters 29, 32) is comic. Athos's drunken gambling (Chapter 28) and D'Artagnan's … |
| The Riddle of the Sands | Thriller and adventure | Humour is dry and character-driven. Davies's absent crew, Carruthers's snobbery about the shabby yacht, the absurdity of their duck-shooting cover, and Carruthers's disguise as a seaman provide light moments. Tone is … |
| The Scarlet Pimpernel | Thriller and adventure | Comedy peaks in chapters 2, 5, and 6 with Jellyband's pomposity, Marguerite's wit, and Percy's foolish manner. The pepper snuff escape in chapter 25 uses physical comedy. Witty dialogue deflates tension throughout, … |
| The Lost World | Thriller and adventure | Humour appears in Malone's failed deception of Challenger (chapter 3), Roxton's dangerous tests (chapter 6), the blank sealed envelope (chapter 7), and the pterodactyl's escape causing panic (chapter 16). The tone is … |
| Captain Blood | Thriller and adventure | Humour is sparse. Blood's dry wit ('worth precisely ten pounds') and the absurdity of his situations provide light moments. The final joke about poetry is the book's main comic beat, offering relief after the brutal … |
| Lady Audley's Secret | Crime and mystery | Humour is sparse. Robert's laziness provides dry comedy in chapters 1 and 4. Alicia's cattiness offers light relief. Luke Marks' crude blackmail has dark comic edges. The overall tone is serious, making rare comic … |
| The Murders in the Rue Morgue | Crime and mystery | Chapter 1 contains light comedy when Dupin deduces the narrator's thoughts about Chantilly the actor. Chapter 4 has dark irony: the police are baffled by what Dupin solves easily. The animal murderer is darkly comic. |
| The Innocence of Father Brown | Crime and mystery | Humour beats occur when Father Brown's dull appearance masks brilliance (c1-c2), when the invisible man is revealed as a postman (c12), and when a curate kills with a dropped hammer (c19-c20). Comedy comes from … |
| The Big Bow Mystery | Crime and mystery | Comedy peaks in Chapter 4 with absurd public theories about the locked room. Chapter 5 to 6 offers comedy through Denzil's poverty and pretension. Chapter 7 satirises Wimp and Grodman's false cordiality (quote 16). The … |
| The Leavenworth Case | Crime and mystery | Humour is rare. Gryce's comment about disguises (c15, q31) is dry. Harwell's dream-based accusation (c20) has ironic weight. The book prioritises mystery and emotion over comedy. Tone is serious throughout. |
| The Red Thumb Mark | Crime and mystery | Humour is dry. Mrs. Hornby's rambling in Chapter 5, Polton's silent competence, Reuben's indifference to Juliet's sacrifice, and the absurdity of the poisoned cigar provide light moments. Thorndyke's calm in crisis … |
| The Amateur Cracksman | Crime and mystery | Humour peaks in Raffles's asides and disguises (chapter 4). The fake death scene (chapter 14) has dark comedy. Bunny's earnest panic contrasts with Raffles's wit throughout. Cricket metaphors (chapter 6) add … |
| The Secret Agent | Crime and mystery | Dark humour appears in the Professor's calm assertion of force of personality despite his miserable appearance. Ossipon's robust anarchism contrasted with his cowardice produces grim comedy. The Assistant … |
| Sense and Sensibility | Romance | Mrs. Jennings's vulgar matchmaking and endless gossip. Robert Ferrars's coxcombry and self-regard. John Dashwood's mercenary logic. The Miss Steeles' inquisitiveness. Marianne's romantic excess. Comedy peaks in … |
| North and South | Romance | Humour is gentle and social. Mrs. Thornton's jealousy of Margaret provides comic tension. Fanny's snobbery is mildly ridiculous. Higgins's blunt speech contrasts amusingly with genteel pretence. The comedy never … |
| Far from the Madding Crowd | Romance | Humour comes from Gabriel's dry observations (vanity diagnosis, ch1). Joseph Poorgrass's stammering and weakness (ch42). Cain Ball's rambling speech (ch33). The workers' gossip and misunderstandings (ch8, ch10). … |
| The Enchanted April | Romance | Humour comes from Mellersh's bathroom mishap and towel encounter with Scrap. Mrs. Fisher's rigid control and territorial behaviour. The servants' struggles with English guests. Scrap's graceful handling of awkward … |
| The Sheik | Romance | Humour is minimal. Chapter 1 offers light social comedy around marriage proposals and male desire. Arbuthnot's rejection is mildly comic. After the abduction, humour vanishes. The book trades comedy for psychological … |
| Daddy Long Legs | Romance | Humour beats occur when Judy invents a family history (chapter 2), names the insect after her benefactor (chapter 4), struggles with philosophy (chapter 11), and reflects on her own ignorance (chapter 9). Her … |
| Carmilla | Gothic and horror | Dark humour appears when Carmilla reacts angrily to religious forms in chapter 4. The General's frustration at being duped provides ironic humour in chapter 10. Madame and Mademoiselle offer occasional comic relief … |
| The Castle of Otranto | Gothic and horror | Humour is rare. A light moment occurs when Bianca reports seeing a giant hand, treated with some irony. The book is primarily tragic and serious in tone. |
| The Phantom of the Opera | Gothic and horror | The safety-pin scheme in chapters 16 to 17 provides dark comedy as the managers' precautions fail mysteriously. Erik's desire for a normal flat in chapter 23 undercuts his villainy. The rat-catcher scene in chapter 20 … |
| The Great God Pan | Gothic and horror | Humour is minimal and dark. Chapter 3 offers slight irony in Villiers' shock at Herbert's degradation. Chapter 5 contains mild irony in Helen's respectability as Mrs. Beaumont masking her true nature. The book … |
| The Yellow Wallpaper | Gothic and horror | Dark comedy emerges from John's medical confidence contrasted with his complete blindness to his wife's state. His fainting at the sight of her creeping provides grim irony. The narrator's proud declaration of escape … |
| The Call of Cthulhu | Gothic and horror | Not a feature of this book. No humour beats exist; the tone remains consistently grave and serious throughout. |
| The Island of Doctor Moreau | Science fiction | Humour is rare and dark. Prendick's observation that he laughed at drowning men (ch 1). His use of deception to control the Beast Folk (ch 21). The irony of Moreau being killed by his own creation (ch 18). |
| Journey to the Centre of the Earth | Science fiction | Comedy arises from the Professor's obsession overriding all practical concerns (ch1, ch4). Hans's phlegmatic calm amid chaos provides dry humour (ch8). Harry's complaints about hunger and fear contrast with the … |
| A Princess of Mars | Science fiction | Humour is sparse. Woola's loyalty in Chapter 10 has gentle comic moments. Carter's cultural misunderstandings provide light relief. The book prioritises adventure and emotion over comedy, making humour beats rare and … |
| Herland | Science fiction | Humour comes from the men's failed expectations: they expect weakness and find strength, expect irrationality and find logic, expect sexual conquest and find companionship. Terry's bravado repeatedly fails. The … |
| Flatland | Science fiction | Humour appears in the Square's dismissal of the grandson's question as foolish (chapter 16), the King of Lineland's inability to grasp two dimensions (chapters 13 to 15), and the satire of Flatland's rigid class system … |
| Erewhon | Science fiction | Humour peaks in chapters 15, 18 to 20, 26 to 27 through absurd inversions: Musical Banks with worthless currency, the unborn mythology, animal rights laws that forbid eating. The satire is intellectual rather than … |
| The Last Man | Science fiction | Humour is sparse. Early chapters contain light moments in Lionel's wild youth and his initial resentment of Adrian. The novel's tragic arc leaves little room for comedy. Occasional irony appears in human folly, the … |
| Through the Looking Glass | Fantasy and children's | Humour beats include the Red Queen's running in place (Chapter 2), the Gnat's impossible insects (Chapter 3), Humpty Dumpty's pedantry (Chapter 6), the White Knight's useless inventions (Chapter 8), and the chaotic … |
| A Little Princess | Fantasy and children's | Humour beats include Lavinia's jealousy (chapter 3), Miss Minchin's shock at Sara's transformation (chapter 18), and the monkey's arrival (chapter 19). These moments are gentle and character-driven, providing relief … |
| The Jungle Book | Fantasy and children's | Humour appears in the monkeys' vanity, Baloo's complaints, the military animals' debate about courage, and Rikki-tikki's confidence. The tone is light and playful in these moments, contrasting with the serious danger … |
| Five Children and It | Fantasy and children's | Humour peaks in chapter two when shopkeepers reject the gold and the children are arrested. Chapter three: everyone wanting the baby is absurd. Chapter eight: Robert as a giant at a fair is comic spectacle. Chapter … |
| The Railway Children | Fantasy and children's | Humour comes from Peter's coal-mining defence, Bobbie's accidental train boarding, Phyllis's innocent questions, and the children's insensitive bone-setting game. Perks's pride and the children's schemes to help him … |
| The Princess and the Goblin | Fantasy and children's | Humour is gentle. Curdie's rhyming insults to the goblin queen in chapter 19 are comic. The grandmother's patient teaching of Irene has dry wit. Irene's dismissal of Lootie in chapter 24 is humorous. No broad comedy. |
| Peter and Wendy | Fantasy and children's | Humour beats include Mr. Darling's tantrums over his tie (chapter 2, quote 6), Peter's vanity and forgetfulness (chapters 3 to 4), Tinker Bell's jealous scheming (chapters 4 to 5), the boys' confusion about Wendy (chapter … |
| The Worm Ouroboros | Fantasy and children's | Humour is rare and dark. Corinius's drunken boasting (chapter 13) and Corsus's failed schemes provide ironic comedy. The tone is mostly serious; comedy serves to undercut pretension rather than entertain. |
| Anne of Green Gables | Fantasy and children's | Humour peaks in chapters 16, 21, and 27: the currant wine disaster, the liniment cake, and the green hair. Anne's exaggerations and misunderstandings create comedy. Marilla's dry observations add wit. The humour is … |
| Black Beauty | Fantasy and children's | Humour is gentle: Merrylegs' vanity (chapter 4, quote 6), the Blomefield boys learning from the pony (chapter 9), Joe's earnest growth (chapter 20), and the butcher's son's impossible situation (chapter 41). Humour … |
| Middlemarch | Literary | Humour arises from social pretension: Mrs. Cadwallader's scheming (c7), Mr. Brooke's political incompetence (c39, c52), townspeople's gossip (c11, c46, c72). The narrator's ironic voice mocks characters gently. … |
| Tess of the d'Urbervilles | Literary | Humour is gentle and early: Durbeyfield's vanity, his wife's schemes, the butter that won't churn, the garlic in the field. Dark humour appears in Alec's false conversion and his claim to be her master. Comedy fades … |
| Mrs Dalloway | Literary | Humour is gentle and observational. Hugh Whitbread's social climbing, Miss Kilman's bitter piety, and Clarissa's self-aware performance as hostess create comedy through character contradiction and social irony rather … |
| To the Lighthouse | Literary | Humour is gentle and rare. Mr. Ramsay's emotional neediness in chapters 6 and 28 to 29 has comic edges. Lily's dry observations about marriage and sympathy provide light moments. Charles Tansley's social awkwardness is … |
| Anna Karenina | Literary | Humour arises from Oblonsky's cheerful amorality, Veslovsky's bumbling, the absurd mystic Landau, and social pretence. Levin's jealousy of Veslovsky provides comedy. The ironic narrator undercuts grand emotions with … |
| Crime and Punishment | Literary | Humour is dark and sparse. Razumihin's drunken enthusiasm in chapter 15, his elaborate promises to the ladies. Luzhin's transparent self-interest and wounded vanity. Porfiry's playful interrogation in chapter 25. The … |
| Madame Bovary | Literary | Humour arises from gap between pretension and reality. Homais's scientific bombast (10, 20), Charles's medical failure (20), the agricultural show's pompous speeches (17) undercut by Rodolphe's seduction. The blind … |
| The Age of Innocence | Literary | Humour arises from social absurdity: Sillerton Jackson's gossip (c5), the van der Luydens' anxious propriety (c7), society's shock at Ellen's choices (c4, c26). The gap between what characters say and mean creates … |
| Silas Marner | Literary | Humour appears in the Rainbow scenes where villagers debate facts and believe in ghosts. Mr. Macey's pedantic corrections and the farrier's blunt scepticism create gentle comedy. The discussion of Cliff's Holiday and … |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Literary | Humour beats include Tom's robber gang confusion (chapter 3), Huck disguised as a girl (chapter 11), the Royal Nonesuch (chapter 24), Aunt Sally's missing spoons (chapter 38), and the animal chaos (chapter 40). … |
| Hamlet | Plays | Dark comedy appears in Hamlet's mockery of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (13, 14), the gravediggers' banter (19), and Hamlet's riddles about death and decay. Humour provides relief from tragedy. |
| Macbeth | Plays | Humour is dark and sparse. The Porter's drunken speech about hell provides grim comic relief. Macbeth's boasts about invincibility become ironic. Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking confession has dark comedy in its contrast … |
| Romeo and Juliet | Plays | Humour peaks in Act Two with Mercutio's Queen Mab speech and Romeo's puns. The Nurse provides bawdy comedy through her talk of Juliet's age and marriage. Servants' wordplay opens Act One. The comedy is sharp and … |
| Othello | Plays | Humour is sparse and dark. Cassio's drunken brawl (c5) is comic but has tragic consequences. The clown's wordplay (c6) provides brief relief. Iago's manipulation of Roderigo (c1, c10) has dark comic irony. Comedy … |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | Plays | Comedy peaks in c5 with Bottom's transformation and Titania's love for him. C6 has comic chaos with both men pursuing Helena. C9 has the craftsmen's bad acting and Puck's self-aware epilogue. |
| Twelfth Night | Plays | Comic beats: Sir Toby's drunken schemes, Sir Andrew's cowardice, Malvolio in yellow stockings, the Clown's wordplay as Sir Topas, the duel between Cesario and Sir Andrew, and the final confusion of Sebastian and Viola. |
| Doctor Faustus | Plays | Comedy beats occur in section 1: Robin steals Faustus's book and attempts clumsy conjuring; the Horse-courser is tricked and loses money; minor characters are transformed into animals. These scenes provide relief … |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | Plays | Comedy peaks when Algernon reads his shirt-cuff, when both men quarrel over muffins, and when Lady Bracknell's rigid interrogation clashes with the lovers' sincerity. Verbal wit and absurd situations drive humour … |
| A Doll's House | Plays | Humour beats occur in Act I through Nora's childish hiding of macaroons and her playful manipulation of Helmer. The humour is gentle and undercuts her apparent innocence, making the later darkness more striking. |
| Hedda Gabler | Plays | Humour is minimal and mostly unintentional. Tesman's academic obliviousness provides light moments in Act 1. Aunt Julia's fussing offers mild comedy. The play is fundamentally serious and tragic, not comedic. |
| Pygmalion | Plays | Comedy peaks in Act III when Eliza shocks polite society with crude remarks and the word 'bloody'. Act II has comic moments with Doolittle's mercenary demands. Act I has comic timing in Higgins's demonstrations. … |
| The School for Scandal | Plays | Humour beats occur in scandal scenes (c1, c4) where witty insults mock women's appearances. Charles's frank admissions amuse (c8). Joseph's sentimental language contrasts comically with his selfish acts (c12). The … |
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