Maps almost never appear in novels — and when they do, they’re usually hiding at the front or back of the book, according to the Cornell Chronicle. Researchers at Cornell University found that just 1.7% of nearly 100,000 novels from the 1800s and early 1900s included maps.
Using AI to scan more than 32 million pages, scholars discovered that a quarter of those maps showed fictional places. Military and detective novels topped the list, beating out fantasy and science fiction, which surprised the team.
The new system lets researchers track how characters move across real and imaginary worlds at massive scale — opening doors to literary insights scholars couldn’t reach before.
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