About 12 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 26 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
After the 1929 stock-market crash, American art dealer Lanny Budd still travels among Europe’s wealthy families, though his socialist convictions increasingly divide him from his heiress wife, Irma. Visiting Germany, he meets Hitler and other Nazi leaders while growing alarmed for the Jewish Robin family, connected to him through his sister Bess. He turns to his social connections to try to protect them as Nazi power grows.
Reader notes
The third Lanny Budd novel covers 1929–1934, weaving extended political discussion through family visits, yacht journeys and art dealings. Its historical sweep requires patience with those discussions, and Nazi persecution brings serious violence and abuse into the privileged social world.
How it reads
Writing style
Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic
Tone
Dark · Earnest · Tense
Structure
Linear
Driven by
Character · Ideas · Plot
Point of view
Third person, omniscient
Setting
France · Germany
Reading complexity
Writing
3 / 5
Ideas
4 / 5
Structure
3 / 5
Background knowledge
3 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Writing
How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas
How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure
How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge
Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity
Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
631 pages in the Simon Publications 2001 paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Simon Publications · 2001 · Paperback. ISBN 9781931313032.
What is the order of books in Lanny Budd?
3. Dragon's Teeth.
How long does it take to read Dragon's Teeth?
About 12 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 631-page Simon Publications edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair was an American author, muckraking journalist, and political activist who made writing a form of public investigation. Across nearly one hundred books and other works in several genres, he documented and criticized the social and economic conditions of his time. His characteristic method joined direct, journalistic prose to historically grounded narrative, placing characters inside factories, mines, oil fields, news organizations, and political circles to show how institutions shape ordinary lives. The Jungle brought him wide attention by exposing labor and sanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry, while The Brass Check applied investigative reporting and argument to the economic interests and professional failures of the American press. Novels including Oil!, King Coal, and The Flivver King extended his scrutiny to industrial wealth, dangerous work, organized labor, and the human costs of mass production. What distinguishes Sinclair’s large body of work is the continuity between fiction and nonfiction: both use research, concrete cases, and accessible storytelling to turn systems of power into matters of immediate public concern.
