typography - Exclamation point inside a sentence


While reading the free Kindle edition of She by H. Rider Haggard (originally published in 1887), I noticed sentences like this one:



But now, to my intense horror, I knew that I could never put away the vision of those glorious eyes; and alas! the very diablerie of the woman, whilst it horrified and repelled, attracted in even a greater degree.



Notice the “alas!” in the middle of a sentence. I have never seen exclamation point in the middle of a sentence used like this before. Was this a common practice at the time this book was published? What is the history of this practice?



Answer



Answering per OP's request:


This is an antiquated style of punctuation, seen primarily in pulp fiction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a kind of parenthetical intensifier. Or you could call it an inline aside. Nowadays, such a thing would probably be rendered in parentheses complete — "... and (alas!) the very diablerie of the woman" — or with just the exclamation mark in parentheses: "... and alas (!) the very ...." etc.


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