GOTTA WRITE A CLASSIC....

Not having bought anything new lately, I started running my finger along the spines in the bookcase looking for something crying out to be read, or read again. Decided to go back to what I was reading a few decades ago and delved into Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. Realised partway through the first chapter I hadn’t actually read it, Tess of the D’Urbervilles being the only Thomas Hardy I had under my belt and the favourite of many in much the same way as Pride and Prejudice is the favourite Jane Austen. It had been lurking there untouched all this time alongside Return of the Native and Jude the Obscure picked up in the last year and equally untouched.

What is it about “The Classics” that causes me to go running for the dictionary every few pages just to make out what the author is getting at? Silly question I guess, it’s obviously the language, otherwise I wouldn’t need the assistance. I realise much of what we regard as classic literature was written a century or so ago, and most of the time you get the gist of what the author is saying by the context, but once you immerse yourself into a story you don’t want it interrupted every half an hour.

Now I know it was published back in 1874, and set in England where those of a certain breed command a much more thorough use of the King’s English, but did Hardy really think we’d all know what a thesmothete was? It’s not in any of the dictionaries I have in the house, had to Google it to find only one definition meaning that which is established, a law, or in the context of this story, a legislator or lawgiver. Not sure whether it’s because Far from the Madding Crowd was one of Hardy’s earlier novels and he was still refining his art, for around halfway through, the weird words lessen and the story flows a lot more naturally. Then again, maybe people in literary circles at that time actually used words such as these in their general conversation.

Peregrinations – wanderings

Recusant – one who refuses submission or compliance

Inanition – emptiness, especially from want of nourishment

Apotheosis – canonization, deification

Supererogatory – doing more than duty requires

Anathematize – curse

Lanceolate – shaped like a spearhead

Tergiversation – making conflicting statements, change one’s party or priciples

Spoliation – pillaging, seizure of property by violence

Abjure – renounce an oath or opinion or claim

Incarnadined – dyed crimson

Pellucid – easily penetrated by light, sight, or the intellect

Interstices – gaps, crevices

Amaranthine – purple, kinds of plant with coloured foliage

I’m all for learning new words, and just rolling some of these round your tongue sounds great, but for me at least it’d be a lot easier in terms of the flow of the action if he could simply say what he meant, even if it takes a few more words to say it. The trouble in doing that I guess would detract from the “classic” language used and reduce it to a mere good story for us mere mortals.

In the process of trolling the dictionary I must admit to getting sidetracked and being fascinated by all sorts of words I never use. Maybe I should submit these to the Reader’s Digest and see if they end up in Word Power.