“They stopped under a ________________, the fruit of which, as healthy as bread and as succulent as cream, was amply partaken of and appreciated.”
I’m reading Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days to the kids these evenings and this is a sentence describing:
“They stopped under a clump of bananas, the fruit of which, as healthy as bread and as succulent as cream, was amply partaken of and appreciated.”
My kids (and I) are learning a lot of new vocabulary words and they often ask me why “he uses so many words.” Well, the book was written in 1873 when not many people had the means to purchase many books and (as a librarian once told me) they wanted their money’s worth – so descriptions were detailed to give them all he could. But this sentence really proved another point – how many people in France or England in 1873 had ever eaten a banana? Is that the way you describe a banana, or do you simply take them for granted?
Jim


