This kind of writing is more amenable to slow reading than quick skimming. Try reading it aloud, pausing at each comma and colon, it reads quite nicely.
I encountered this kind of style very often when reading French classics of the 19th century. I'm French BTW, and the modern mantra of "sentences must be short and convey only one idea" is still not as strongly followed here as it seems to be in the US.
I encountered this kind of style very often when reading French classics of the 19th century. I'm French BTW, and the modern mantra of "sentences must be short and convey only one idea" is still not as strongly followed here as it seems to be in the US.