"May I propose, sir, that you delay my abduction until we have..."

Blazing Reader,

My forthcoming novella, COVID Disobedience, is partially set in 1846, dramatizing the arrest of Henry David Thoreau (for refusing to pay $9 in poll tax). 

It's proving tricky keeping the 19th-century New England dialogue both authentic and easy to read. Here's a sample:

"Thoreau flung wide his arms, his grin stretching its broadest yet. 'May I propose, sir, that you delay my abduction until we have walked and discoursed, as men of reason are wont? We’ll pass Taggart’s shop, where I may settle with him for my brogans, lest I incur a real debt in addition to the fictitious. Then, you may lock me up in fitting footwear. You would agree that brogans suit confinement far better than polished leather?' He stroked his chin. 'I recall, once wearing Congress boots on a canoe trip down the Merrimack…'

I've certainly eliminated the long sentences Thoreau was wont to talk in. Por ejemplo, here's the opening sentence from his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers:

"The Musketaquid, or Grass-ground River, though probably as old as the Nile or Euphrates, did not begin to have a place in civilized history, until the fame of its grassy meadows and its fish attracted settlers out of England in 1635, when it received the other but kindred name of CONCORD from the first plantation on its banks, which appears to have been commenced in a spirit of peace and harmony."

There are even longer sentences — though some cheat by using a semicolon to keep them going.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. For another sample (with a Scottish lilt) from my forthcoming semi-historical fiction, COVID Disobedience, check out: "...a dollar fifty in poll tax is naught so cruel compared to a Scotsman’s rent..."

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.