I'll admit there are times when the prose style in the early 19th C ladies' magazines seems impenetrable. In this case, instead of the expected description of the plate, we get a lecture about how much better this bed is than the old, overdone style. Would anybody like to try turning the last sentence into the kind of English the modern reader wouldn't have to read more than once?
From Ackermann's Repository, November 1816.
I actually had no problem with the text :D .
ReplyDeleteDitto-I must be reading too much of this stuff.
ReplyDelete"Less is More" ?
ReplyDeleteNot a problem, either. It's discussing how the style of the bed lends a more home-y and cheerful sense to an apartment; stylish and idiosyncratic to a cookie-cutter apartment.
ReplyDeleteVery nice translation, Megan! It would be interesting to compare this to a description in a present-day home furnishings catalog. These sorts of entries give us an idea of how differently we use language today.
ReplyDelete