Writing styles out of vogue.

[MANICHAEAN]

I think it was about a week ago, there was this very popular thread concerning the use of "older" words, though some Lit Netters owned up to the fact that in many instances they still employ them.

Are there similarly, any preferences, or examples for historical styles of writing that you might still use?

Let me give you as an illustration some extracts from the author Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen ( 1848 - 1899) in his book "An African Millionaire. Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay.":


"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I say coffee and Benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift. "By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these ladies are not above a cigeratte - some of them."

"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.

However, we did not accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence upon Amelia's digestive organs.

"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown, haven't we?"

[hillwalker]

If your intention is to evoke past times, or indeed to create a particular atmosphere (like preserving a stuffed animal inside a glass case) then copying slightly less contemporary styles is fine. Certain horror stories, for example, always seem more menacing when written in the style of Poe or Lovecraft.

But if the writer is using a 'classical' style merely to impress the reader, or is employing a painfully archaic mode of writing in the mistaken belief that it will give him instant aristic merit then it should be oulawed!

H