Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to Geneva; and I could not collect the courage to recommence my work. I feared the vengeance of the disappointed fiend, yet I was unable to overcome my repugnance to the task which was enjoined me.

—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, v. 3 p. 1 (1818)

This struck me as poorly written. That first phrase: why not say "weeks passed after I came back to Geneva", or something less confusing? "Recommence", indeed.

Her other novels are equally turgid. I'm not alone in thinking this. On the final page of the third volume of The Last Man (1826), which I have before me, some 19th century reader has written "Bosh."