While reading The Scarlet Letter, I happened to notice that, not only is Nathaniel Hawthorn long-winded, but he uses some extremely long sentences. On pages 47-48 there is a sentence that is 8, yes 8, lines long. I'm pretty sure that's a little too long. But , through use of commas and m-dashes, he manages to make his sentences grammatically correct. Can I just take a second to say, Wow? If I tried to make a sentence 8 lines long it would be a disaster. I guess that's why we're reading his book-- because he can pull off some pretty amazing things while staying within the grammar rules.