I’m currently reading The Duke and I and the author is constantly using the word “acerbic”. I had never heard of the word before now and had to google the definition. The word has shown up so much that I’m tempted to go through the book and count its appearances lol.
Have you noticed any authors having favorite words that they use page after page?
If he was paid per letter it makes sense. Paid per word you need to use shorter words
In this case it feels like more of a consequence of his style. He wrote very verbosely and seemed to love getting lost in descriptive run alongs with strange or outlandish words. Major contributing factor to the love it or hate it feeling of reading his works.