[hobnail]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A lot of old books are better on screen because they are hard to read. Jane Austen books are better on screen. I cannot stand to read her books.

I really wanted to read Ivanhoe but the further back in time you go the more turgid the English becomes. Take for example this sentence from that book:

In defiance of conventual rules, and the edicts of popes and councils, the sleeves of this dignitary were lined and turned up with rich furs, his mantle secured at the throat with a golden clasp, and the whole dress proper to his order as much refined upon and ornamented, as that of a quaker beauty of the present day, who, while she retains the garb and costume of her sect continues to give to its simplicity, by the choice of materials and the mode of disposing them, a certain air of coquettish attraction, savouring but too much of the vanities of the world.

The phrase "a tough row to hoe" was never more appropriate.

I never did understand the section in Strunk and White's The Elements of Style about passive writing but after trying to re-read some of these old books I decided that that's what the problem was with them; nonstop passive writing. But my confusion with passive writing was due to Strunk and White's bad examples; see https://thecriticalreader.com/bad-advice-about-the-passive-voice-from-strunk-and-white/

So now I'll just call it turgid writing.