Incomplete sentence in Oliver Twist?

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april61
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:48 pm

Incomplete sentence in Oliver Twist?

Postby april61 » Tue Jun 13, 2006 10:37 am

A home-educating mom on a Yahoo groups for the same found a mistake in Oliver Twist (can it be?!!!). We had the dickens of a conversation about it, with some moms purporting that the sentence was, indeed, correct as written, while others, like myself, argued that it couldn't possibly be considered grammatically correct. What do you think? And how would you correct it?
Ch. VII, Oliver Continues Refractory
12th paragraph from the end of the chapter
Last sentence:

Having availed himself of the expiring light of the candle to tie up in a handkerchief the few articles of wearing apparel he had, sat himself down upon a bench, to wait for morning.
In grace,
april
I'm from Wiscahhhhnsin, where our German ancestors warshed their close out in the crick...

Perry
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Location: Asheville, NC

Postby Perry » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:02 pm

I know that in the UK come words that we would write or speak are skipped. Eg. "he is in hospital" ['the' is missing], or "I'll give it you" ['to' is missing]. So perhaps in this very long and clumsy sentence it is normal for Dickens to have written this without 'he' preceeding 'sat himself down'.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

april61
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:48 pm

Postby april61 » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:17 pm

I know that in the UK come words that we would write or speak are skipped. Eg. "he is in hospital" ['the' is missing], or "I'll give it you" ['to' is missing]. So perhaps in this very long and clumsy sentence it is normal for Dickens to have written this without 'he' preceeding 'sat himself down'.
P'rhaps... but leaving out an article or a preposition isn't quite the same as leaving out the subject of the sentence. Have you ever run across examples of other British authors (or Dickens himself) leaving out a "he" when it's the subject?

In favor of your argument is the fact that we can't find any editions of Oliver Twist that corrected this sentence.

In grace,
april
I'm from Wiscahhhhnsin, where our German ancestors warshed their close out in the crick...


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