Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 08, 2014 at 03:21:33 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome's language posted by Mike Dennis on November 08, 2014 at 00:16:31:
they are still readable, but the use of language in SA is more child directed than the later novels.
I agree. But as you say, in S&A, AR was feeling his way. He developed his own style as he went along, and I'm sure that the commercial success of the books increased his confidence. Although he always had to contend with the fierce, brutally honest criticism of Evgenia. Not for nothing, Trotsky's revolutionary helper.
But the feature that always strikes me is the pared down clarity of his style, which I am sure must have owed something to his journalistic experience. It's absolutely not telegraphese, but there's a sheer pleasure in reading his spare, supple prose. All told with a minimum of flim-flam, but driving the story forwards all the time.
There's a valid, but extreme, contrast with my favourite adult fiction author, Anthony Powell. Again, superbly worked out stories with 'living' characters who you get to know better than many 'real' people, but Powell's style is circumloquacious to an irritating degree- never use five words where ten will do. It sometimes drives me nuts... But I read Powell again and again because the stories and the characters are absolutely compelling- and huge fun. Whereas settling down with AR is always a pleasure; the machinery purring below; no word wooze, always the right verbiage. AR would never use 'circumloquacious'. Mind you, I don't think Powell did either...