Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I have a great love of reading 19th century novels. The 19th century was a different world, and all sorts of words which are commonplace then have completely fallen out of use today. One can sometimes guess the meaning of a word, but personally I find it a lot more satisfactory to be able to look up the actual meaning of word.
Here's an example, from Anthony Trollope's "Barchester Towers":
Now, for those of you who say that you read books without a dictionary, what is a "ha-ha"? What about a "quintain"?
I find that an easily available dictionary makes the whole process of reading such books a lot "richer", because you can look up what the author actually meant, rather than having to guess - perhaps wrongly - what these unfamiliar words mean.
|
Yes for me too the fantastic Dictionary on the Sony PRS-600 mainly comes into use whilst reading the Classics,
Most modern novels use wording in common use and rarely words I don't know,