Anarcho: 1920s Moderns reacted against Victorians, and made fun of their prose style. They deemed it sentimental and florid; they argued their writers catered to the tastes of their female readership; and argued in favor of (in Raymond Chandler's phrase) "brutal honesty": masculine, straightforward prose that was simple, direct, and clear -- what you are asking from me, what most teachers of writing ask from their writers. It IS a masculine prose-style. It was fashioned by moderns – deliberately -- to help beat back the overbearing Victorian Matriarch "bitch." And its predominance has made it so that today, even if you like Victorian prose, you had better not imitate the style when you write papers/essays -- you'll be killed for it.
I'd have to do research to find out what they specifically thought of Dickens and such, but I know of Henry James (someone whose prose bridges both periods) that Fitzgerald and Hemingway tended to make fun of his genteel, femmy, prose style.
I'm genuinely sorry my writing amounts to a mass of words for you. Not much fun if I can't communicate even the sense of what I was after.
ME2: I've very well educated. Specifically, I'm a frequent visitor of Itunes U, and by now I bet I have the equivalent of ten-or-maybe-twelve degrees. When they decide to credit this, I'll put down those dustjackets (how did you know?), and spend my time admiring all the degrees papering my bedroom walls.
Link: The Tyee
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