Love the thorough examination of the sentence. A house for Mr. Biswas is one of those forgotten classics of the 20th century full of comic situations and sentences which makes one sit up and take notice - not for their dramatic or flowery qualities but for their ability to express a convoluted situation in the most simplest of prose.
Here’s another example from later in the book when Mr. Biswas moves to Port of Spain esp. the last sentence :
Mr Biswas was amused by Ramchand’s city manners and allowed himself to be patronized by him. …He had acquired a loudness and heartiness which was alien and which he did not always carry off easily. ..And Mr Biswas suffered when, as sometimes happened, Ramchand was rebuffed; when, for instance, partly to impress Mr Biswas, he overdid the heartiness in his relations with the Negroes in the yard and was met with cold surprise.
Wow, what a detailed and thoughtful exposition of the weight of the sentence, its construction. Loved your curious tone and style of raising questions and then proceeding to gently point at possible answers by giving your opinions with the reasoning behind them. This post of yours deserves to be a reading assignment in TAoCW course. Maybe also an assignment to write a similar analysis of a favorite sentence of the participant.
It's a great sentence. I don't think any of my English teachers in school would have liked me writing such a long sentences, but I've learned that long sentences can be very effective, especially if there are enough commas to allow the reader to pause.
Love the thorough examination of the sentence. A house for Mr. Biswas is one of those forgotten classics of the 20th century full of comic situations and sentences which makes one sit up and take notice - not for their dramatic or flowery qualities but for their ability to express a convoluted situation in the most simplest of prose.
Here’s another example from later in the book when Mr. Biswas moves to Port of Spain esp. the last sentence :
Mr Biswas was amused by Ramchand’s city manners and allowed himself to be patronized by him. …He had acquired a loudness and heartiness which was alien and which he did not always carry off easily. ..And Mr Biswas suffered when, as sometimes happened, Ramchand was rebuffed; when, for instance, partly to impress Mr Biswas, he overdid the heartiness in his relations with the Negroes in the yard and was met with cold surprise.
Wow, what a detailed and thoughtful exposition of the weight of the sentence, its construction. Loved your curious tone and style of raising questions and then proceeding to gently point at possible answers by giving your opinions with the reasoning behind them. This post of yours deserves to be a reading assignment in TAoCW course. Maybe also an assignment to write a similar analysis of a favorite sentence of the participant.
It's a great sentence. I don't think any of my English teachers in school would have liked me writing such a long sentences, but I've learned that long sentences can be very effective, especially if there are enough commas to allow the reader to pause.
Most interesting. A sensitive exploration of sentence.