Anyone understand this reference from a Nancy Mitford novel?

[38fillets]

The Gibbon one? I've never read a word of Edward Gibbon, so I don't know if it's a reference to his prose style

No idea but I'm a Mitford fan so watching closely

This is a guess:

A "period" can mean a sentence.
The historian Edward Gibbon was renowned for having a highfalutin "Classical English" style with long-winded, complex sentences.

So I’m guessing she had the pawnbroker speaking in a way that would be very unlikely to be realistic for a pawnbroker.

Exactly this.

Thanks everyone, sounds convincing. I was thinking of 'period' as meaning full stop, rather than sentence, which confused me.

A periodic sentence, so google tells me, is a complex formal sentence that has the main clause at the end.

• "Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved -- to write a book." - Edward Gibbon in Memoirs of My Life

@Felicityjoy has it.

Thank you - I found that really interesting!

Thanks, @38fillets. That's the kind of question I'd be likely to ask - although I'm more conversant with antiquated references than modern ones, I think.

@38fillets Thank you, interesting question and answers. Which Nancy Mitford novel are you reading?

I'm curious about which characters are having the conversation you asked about and whether this reflects Nancy Mitford's own experiences. She was one of six daughters (they had one brother as well) and they didn't have much formal education, also most girls' schools in the early 20th century didn't offer a very academic education, though they did get to read quite widely. She later moved in more intellectual circles and had writer friends who had more formal school and university education.

It was "Christmas Pudding".

I have to stand up for Gibbon here. His English was measured, thoughtful and rich. It was composed as an expression of ideas, not intended be read as we read novels today. It wasn’t highfalutin, if by that you mean affected and pretentious.

I was looking for someone who could express what I mean with more insight and I found this:

“Gibbon’s prose is of the Classical English style. It’s a powerful style. A style often overlooked as modern readers and writers have been trained in the vice of enduring trite, boring, wooden, short, Hemingway App approved sentences. Classical English still exists. I wouldn’t use it for copywriting or for an instruction manual, but it exists. While it exists, not everyone quite understands it. At first skim, it can read stuffy, repetitive, ponderous, or long-winded; without awareness of the style, it’s easy to miss its rich colors and rhetorical powers. Classical English is akin to the painting style of famous Renaissance or Flemish painters. You need to sit with the painting, engage with it, and at other times, let it come to life.”

https://jimclair.com/decline-fall-roman-empire/edward-gibbon/

Fair enough! I apologise to all Gibbon fans. Actually I like that sort of writing too.

• It highlights a debate on realistic dialogue versus stylized language, using the example of a pawnbroker.
• "Gibbon periods" refers to the elaborate writing style of historian Edward Gibbon, suggesting the pawnbroker's dialogue is overly sophisticated.
• The passage implies a contrast between the author's approach to characters and the critique received.
• It touches on the challenge of representing diverse voices authentically in fiction.
• The discussion revolves around the balance between artistic license and realism in character depiction.

I've not read Gibbon.
However I find Thomas Hardy difficult to read because of his repetitive and ponderous description, mostly based on the countryside.
It takes him a whole chapter to walk down a country lane imo.

Does he have any parallels with Gibbon or am I wide of the mark here?

It's ages since I read "Christmas Pudding". I'm another Nancy M. fan and could probably put my finger firmly on anything from TPOL, LIACC, "Pigeon Pie" or "The Blessing", but this intrigued me.
Is the first sentence addressed to Paul Fotheringay?
He had had what he felt was a serious book received with acclaim as a comedy, iirc. I'd assume that he'd used a high faluting style (acceptable for Gibbons in his historical works) to put words into a pawnbrokers mouth.

Or indeed what Felicityjoy said much more succinctly, now I read back (slow typist).
Chapeau and felicitations, Felicityjoy 🙂

I’m not keen on Hardy, but only because of the coincidences and the way it always seems to go wrong. I don’t remember anything particular about his prose style, so I can’t say. I’ve just discovered on BookBeat that Philip Madoc reads Gibbon, and I’m genuinely looking forward to listening to that.

I find Hardy so depressing.

@DustyMaiden why are you c&p chucks of AI?

George lll: 'scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr Gibbon?'

I googled it , it put it better than I could, thought it was interesting.