A new study suggests there has been a draining of feeling from books through the  20th century.

The google “ngram” database tracked billions of words and analysed  broad emotional shifts across decades.

It  found that  English-language fiction books became steadily  less emotional through the past century.

Researchers at three British universities tracked the use of “mood words” – or words carrying emotional content and sorted them into six main categories  including  anger, joy and  sadness.

They  identified a decrease  in overall use of “mood words”  with only words relating to fear  increasing in the past several decades.

The study is published online at  plos one  dot  org.