I DID scroll to the bottom. But I also thought perhaps I should copy and paste it into another document, to see if I could re-punctuate it for my own reading pleasure and comprehension. Then I talked myself out of it.

I confess. I scrolled down, too. And almost wore out the wheeel on my mouse.
I know I am also guilty (occasionally) of using commas very freely.
But gee whiz, y'all, this guy has to be admired. After all, it is not easy to eccentric in this day and age.

Ayup, that's one very long sentence.

Now, who wants to diagram it?

Anyone? Mr. Opsasnik? Anyone? Anyone?

[/Ferris Bueller's Day Off]

Yes, I'm not ashamed to say I scrolled. Once the eyes start glazing over, down I go.

For all the litany of complaints, it seems that even in the nineteenth century, mankind was mankind.

Puseyism, ... Two-Seedism, Psychopannychism...

I agree! Damn it, but I do hate puseyists, Two-seedists, and those miserable good for nothing Psychopannychists. They just piss me off to no end.
(especially the Two-seedists)

JWM

Wow... what a critique of the nineteeth century. If he were alive today, I wonder what the length of the sentence would be for the 20th century.

Hmmm... I'd hate tomeet him in a flame war on the web. I'm guessing he'd be like this guy:

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/kungfumaster.htm

He's the anti-Twitter!

Other than the foregoing, he has no opinion about it.

I adore long complex sentences and have been quietly proud of some of my own. All gone now, alas; it is apparent I am but a teetering baby unable even to comprehend the marathon works of her betters. Drat you, Gerard, for this enlightenment!

Tell you what, it was a dark and stormy night when this motherfucker sat down to deliver his thoughts.

Nineteenth century style and all, though (and the egregious level of typographical error aside,) he pretty much nailed it, didn't he?

You funny guy De Witt.

Okay, I'm bowdlerbastardifying this, but hell's bells....let us digress:

My lieges, and madames, to expostulate obstreperously
What majesty should be, what duty is, nay, the obligation of obligesses obladee or obladah, oblige me, for a hey nonny nonny nanosecond, while I palaver the point in excessive blatherful verbiscosity.
What day is day, night night, it rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry, and time is time, which keeps on ticking ticking ticking, into the future,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time; which I previously mentioned in great length heretofore, and therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. You, Gerard, are mad.

But if I hadn't scrolled to the bottom, I wouldn't have found this near the bottom:

ITnspiritualism

They had IT guys back then? And they had a religion?

Dear Mr. Vanderleun: In an effort to raise the tone of this discussion, which has gotten much too facetious, I have emailed this sentence to Jon Favreau Look for the level of The One's speeches to follow soon.

Your welcome.

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

To wit:
Jesus wept.

Yes, I scrolled...and laughed when I read Gregory Koster's comments. I had the same thought, and will be looking forward to another 17 minute speech at the next q&a, only this time it will be only one sentence. Now to go back and try to read this...darn you Gerard.

Yep.

Scrolled down, then back up and kind of sort of read it. I started to think it started in the nineteenth and ended up in the twenty first.

I would have finished scrolling all the way to the bottom but the wheel on my mouse overheated.

Lots of typos as you got further on. I liked "Koman Catholicism" and "Ultramontauism". I was also fond of "the Mother of Got!" and "poirer" for power. :)

On the whole, it's a very shrewd review of the 19th century, although I would dispute a good many individual points in it.

The typos arise from Google Book Scanning translating into misconstrued characters not from the book itself.

Uh ... no [strike]comma[/strike] comment. Heck, I've done entire blog posts in twenty-five words or less. Much to the gratitude of whoever blundered across my site on their way to soup recipes I imagine.

if you squint you can see the intended formatting.

That's one criticism my writing gets, and its a somewhat valid point. My style is somewhat old, I'm the anti-Elmore Leonard. I tend to have complex, nested sentences with multiple concepts pulled together into a single idea stated in a single sentence. These days that's a bit challenging for some folks to read, particularly younger ones.

Christopher,
You been reading any John Owen lately? My wife can tell when I'm doing so because even my spoken sentences get longer.

One of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' books is constructed with a single sentence for each chapter. I don't remember which one and I have given away my collection.

Yeah John Owen was the king of gigantic sentences, all those puritans were. Takes some reading but boy can they pack a lot in a small space. Every time I read those guys I feel like an idiot, such a poor education compared to what they got.

I can't brain enough for that in 1 day

"Be lucid, but spare me the details" ~ Joseph Conrad

Nope.
Read it all.
Most enjoyable.
Although I disagreed with parts, i.e. love the Sallies, were they really eccentric, profane and delusional?
Thank you, Gerard, for the Google Book scan info.
And a very heart-felt thank you for this post.
I'm sending it to our pastor, a real verse by verse, no nonsense, no editorialising, old school teacher of the Word- he's sure to (if he hasn't already) enjoy Pastor Hassell.
To Hale Adams's query, who else but The Comma Queen?
And Joan of Argghh (many thanks for your work) anti-Twitter, yes, however an age when people could reasonably expect others to listen, ponder and thoughtfully respond.
Not like now, during the End Times.

We...these despised and calumniated servants of the Most High God. My new favorite.

Blows Proust out of the water!

Read the whole lot. Does it count as Lenten Penance?

As I chugged through it, started to wonder when he would get to Mormonism and other artefacts of the Second Great Awakening (Seventh Day Adventism, etc.)... I hoped in vain to be able to Gotcha the man, but he slapped them both down footnote-like in the peroration of isms. (Millerism == more or less Seventh Day Adventism as much as I care to care).

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I'd throw in the Jewish Enlightenment and Emancipation, German Philology, and Renan.