Uh-oh:
This sentence represents an extreme instance of Anne Brontë’s idiosyncratic excess and defect in the use of commas. I have not deleted the formally intrusive comma after “Because,” because I have chosen to read it as an emotional notation indicating the staccato breathlessness of speech under high stress; neither have I inserted a comma between “a trifle more” and “I imagine,” which may therefore represent the outpouring of indignation Anne Brontë intended.I think I’m going to stop reading the notes in my edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. ”Idiosyncratic excess” too often describes the editor’s commentary.
comments: 2
I suspect that the editor is simply factually wrong. I just finished Little Dorrit and noticed that Dickens frequently uses introductory commas where no one would think of employing one today. It was simply the standard editorial practice at the time and isn't evidence of "defect"or "emotional notation."
This editor has much to say about Brontë’s punctuation, and she reads much into it. I’m content to say for now that punctuation in B’s time was a more flexible matter than it might be for us. And yes, Dickens too punctuates in ways that we wouldn’t.
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