Understanding a long sentence with parenthesis (example)

Question

I would like to ask for help with the following sentence:

It was a compound of unusual esthetic and intellectual elements, and was somehow closely allied in my thoughts with the same fascination that has drawn me ever since childhood toward all things that are remote in space and time, or which have about them the irresolvable twilight of antiquity.

I cannot tell for sure which part of the sentence is the bold part referring to. Is is referring to the preceding sentence (things that are remote..) or to the first part (elements..)? Also, could the "have about them" be written in another way? I am not sure I understand its meaning.

Answer 1

The bolded portion is associated with the former (i.e. things that are remote). This is somewhat of a run-on sentence. The writer could have improved readability overall by separating as follows:

It was a compound of unusual esthetic and intellectual elements; somehow closely allied in my thoughts with the same fascination that has drawn me ever since childhood towards things that are remote in space and time, or which have about them the irresolvable twilight of antiquity.

A semi-colon here is less of a "full break" between sentences than a period, so we don't need to re-state what the paragraph is referring to (which is "it"), while still breaking up the description into distinct parts.

The phrase "have about them" is largely just a colourful way to describe how something makes the writer feel. It gives the impression of something having an "aura" or something which feels so distinctly a certain way that it reaches out and affects the area around. In simpler/more direct words, the writer could say "or [things] which have an undefinable sense of oldness".

Answer 2

I would interpret the last relative clause as

... toward all things that are remote in space and time
... toward all things which have about them the irresolvable twilight of antiquity.

In my opinion. part of the confusion is caused by the switch in relative pronoun (from that to which) for no reason. If we remove the which, the sentence is actually clearer.

It was a compound of unusual esthetic and intellectual elements, and was somehow closely allied in my thoughts with the same fascination that has drawn me ever since childhood toward all things that are remote in space and time, or have about them the irresolvable twilight of antiquity.

We use the expression have about them to refer to some characteristic which we can easily sense but can't explain why.

He had about him an intensity that made him seem almost mad. - The Beating of his Wings- Paul Hoffmann
He had about him an otherworldly air that was graceful and lofty. - The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature - Victor H Mair