On Sun, 30 Mar 2003, Jose Marquez wrote: > That's awesome! I really like Neil's stuff; it should be interesting to > see him take on Paarfi-isms. Paarfi is the reason I wish I could read > Dumas in the original French (seeing as I can't get a hold of the > Little, Brown translation). There are reasons to read Dumas in French, but Paarfiisms aren't among them. The prose (especially in _Three Musketeers_) sounds quite modern to me. I suspect that Paarfi's language has more to do with antiquated English translations and other writers (or perhaps bad Dumas - I've only read the _tTM_, _Twenty Years After_, and the first 800 or so pages of Monte Cristo). To be fair to Paarfi, he does keep the plot going, and in the rare case when it bogs down I think he allows it to happen in order to evoke in the reader a sense of, for example, the boredom of travel. By the way, could someone remind me what house Paarfi belongs to? It probably should be borne in mind when reading his work.