0

The following sentence is from Lincoln in the Bardo, an experimental novel published in 2017. As an imitation of 19th-century English, is it crafted properly?

I did always try, in all my aspects, to hew to elevation; to dispense therewith, into myself, those higher virtues of which, rendered without, one verily may sag, and, dwelling there in one’s misfortune, what avails.

I wonder if "those higher virtues of which, rendered without, one verily may sag" should have been "those higher virtues, rendered without which one verily may sag."

Improve this question
8
  • It makes no sense to me! I had to look up hew to, which was unfamiliar to me as a British English speaker, but I still don't understand how the other phrases relate to one another.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 13:14
  • @KateBunting - Lincoln in the Bardo has been called 'experimental writing'. It has been said of George Saunders that he admires sentences that have “been the subject of so much concentration, they become a thing in the world.” The New Yorker, whose review is tellingly titled "George Saunders gets inside Lincoln's Head', says that it contains much in the way of 'comic grandiloquence' (e.g. the quoted sentence). I would hesitate to recommend this book to any but the most advanced of non-native readers.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 15:23
  • The author apparently got lost in his relative clause.
    – Apollyon
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 15:25
  • You may find a summary here which I will not reproduce for copyright reasons.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 15:26
  • I wrote "I would hesitate to recommend this book to any but the most advanced of non-native readers." I think many very advanced native readers would find this book tiring, annoying, or baffling, or all three.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 15:27

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .