The Standings → Claude Sonnet 5.5 (high)
Anthropic
high reasoning effort · via Claude CLI · judged by Claude Sonnet 5 · not the setting shown on the standings; also run at xhigh78.3 medium68.9
Results from run ‘first’: ten items, ten verdicts.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (high) scores 76 on craft, 13 points above the field’s 63 and 17 points short of the authors themselves. Its shape differs from the field’s: relatively strong on building scenes, relatively weak on momentum. On the mechanical checks it kept to the brief’s word range on 4 of 10 items.
The record: 10 items · 10 verdicts · 0 errors · 2,592 words on average · est. generation cost $0.84
Eight dimensions, each 0–100, averaged over ten items; the author’s real chapter was in the room every time.
Craft by dimension, 0–100 · judged by Sonnet 5 beside the author’s real chapter
The authors themselves average 93 on the five writing dimensions, the field 63, this model 76. Hover or focus a bar for the field and the authors on that dimension.
The judge’s one-sentence best quality and worst flaw for each chapter, written for a general reader.
Best Small vivid touches, like the stubborn moor pony that 'saw no reason why a carriage should be allowed to alter that,' give the chapter real atmosphere without overselling it.
Worst At the very end the narrator tells us Mary speaks her resolve 'quite aloud' instead of just trusting the moment to land on its own.
Best The return scene with Georgette at the bal musette gives her real dignity and quiet sadness instead of using her as a punchline, echoing her exact earlier line ('You're not a bad type') to good effect.
Worst The last paragraph turns unusually pretty and sentimental about the sunrise (the river going 'pink and then gold'), which is softer and more decorated than Hemingway's usual flat, clipped endings.
Best The milkman's garbled, exaggerating report of the fall ('killed a cow'... 'demonstrably false') captures exactly the kind of small-town rumor-mill texture the real book uses.
Worst The very last line spells out the dread ('waited...for whatever was to come next') instead of trusting the reader to feel it.
Best The dinner between the three friends is warmly staged with real sensory detail (the buffalo robe, the spurs, the prairie song), so it reads as a scene instead of a report.
Worst The final telegram is too neatly reassuring, so the chapter ends on relief instead of the unsettling twist the brief asks for.
Best The Kellynch Hall meeting scene is tense and well-paced, with sharp, in-character dialogue (Sir Walter on the oaks, Shepherd's forbidden word) that keeps building.
Worst The same joke about someone being so surprised it's as if the furniture had spoken gets used twice in one chapter, and one passage stops to explain what Anne is thinking instead of just showing it.
Best The small aside of Poirot stopping to admire a flash of yellow in the flowerbed on the way to a deathbed is a lovely, true-to-character touch that shows rather than tells who he is.
Worst The key clue is described so vaguely ('of no colour that I could name') that it barely feels like a real object, which undercuts the payoff of the whole search scene.
Best Robert's invented line about the world being 'made that morning' is genuinely lovely and is left to echo quietly instead of being explained to the reader.
Worst Edna's tart comeback about 'a cat on a hearth-rug' feels sharper and more socially confident than the shy, reserved woman established so far.
Best The widow's interview is tense and well-played, with her lie about the bloody slipper caught in a small, believable stumble rather than a full confession.
Worst A confusing image near the end, ash dropped into his shoe while the ashtray somehow also fills up, is a small but noticeable slip in an otherwise careful chapter.
Best The individual lines of dialogue are often genuinely funny and sound close to the real author's wit, such as comparing thanking the wrong man to congratulating a bishop on his hat trick.
Worst The porter tells Eve the man's name is Mr. Psmith early in the chapter, but every later scene acts as though she still has no idea who he is, which breaks the story's own logic.
Best The scene where Lady Verinder quietly forbids her brother's name, and Franklin's promise, is understated and true to her character.
Worst It briefly brings Miss Rachel onto the page arriving and speaking, and it never has Franklin learn about the morning's Indian jugglers or connect them to the Diamond, even though the story had just set that up.
Headline, compliance and craft for each chapter, 0–100.
| Item | Headline | Compliance | Craft | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Secret Garden item 013 · after ch. 2 · Frances Hodgson Burnett | 83.8 | 100 | 84 | 2,564 |
| The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway | 80.1 | 100 | 80 | 2,302 |
| The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells | 79.4 | 100 | 79 | 2,658 |
| Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker | 78.8 | 95 | 83 | 2,291 |
| Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen | 76.9 | 100 | 77 | 2,900 |
| The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie | 76.6 | 100 | 77 | 2,489 |
| The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin | 75.5 | 95 | 80 | 1,728 |
| Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett | 70.1 | 100 | 70 | 2,601 |
| Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse | 69.1 | 90 | 77 | 3,202 |
| The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins | 50.7 | 90 | 56 | 3,187 |
Words written per item, against each brief’s maximum.
Word count per item vs. brief maximum · run ‘first’
Four of ten items landed inside their brief’s word range. The Secret Garden and The War of the Worlds and Persuasion and Red Harvest and Leave It to Psmith and The Moonstone ran over by 164 and 58 and 300 and 1 and 402 and 387 words respectively.
Each verdict names the chapter’s single worst flaw, with evidence. Quoted verbatim from run ‘first’.
It briefly brings Miss Rachel onto the page arriving and speaking, and it never has Franklin learn about the morning's Indian jugglers or connect them to the Diamond, even though the story had just set that up.
The same joke about someone being so surprised it's as if the furniture had spoken gets used twice in one chapter, and one passage stops to explain what Anne is thinking instead of just showing it.
The last paragraph turns unusually pretty and sentimental about the sunrise (the river going 'pink and then gold'), which is softer and more decorated than Hemingway's usual flat, clipped endings.
The porter tells Eve the man's name is Mr. Psmith early in the chapter, but every later scene acts as though she still has no idea who he is, which breaks the story's own logic.
Automated screening results across the ten outputs.