I'm giving The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant another shot, as I hate having half-read books in my collection. But I find Stephen Donaldson's style to be quite pompous, especially with sections like this:
"Beggars and fanatics, holy men, prophets of the apocalypse didn't belong on that street in that sunlight; the frowning, belittling eyes of the stone columns held no tolerance for such preterite exaltation."
Does anybody know what "preterite exaltation" means in this instance?