bore the reader with the stale, flat quality of its language.

The result of his attempt to improve the quality of the Gesta's
language, however, is what has distressed some of the modern readers
who have tried to deal with Guibert's strenuously elaborate diction,
[11] itself a part of his general delight, perhaps obsession, with
difficulty. The utter lack of references to Guibert by his
contemporaries may indicate that earlier readers shared R.B.C.
Huygens' recent judgement that it is marred by an "affected style and
pretentious vocabulary."[12]

Guibert seems to have anticipated such a response; at the beginning
of Book Five of the Gesta he claims to be utterly unconcerned with
his audiences' interests and abilities:

In addition to the spiritual reward this little work of mine may
bring, my purpose in writing is to speak as I would wish someone else,
writing the same story, would speak to me. For my mind loves what
is somewhat obscure, and detests a raw, unpolished style. I savor
those things which are able to exercise my mind more than those
things which, too easily understood, are incapable of inscribing
themselves upon a mind always avid for novelty. In everything that I
have written and am writing, I have driven everyone from my mind,
instead thinking only of what is good for myself, with no concern for
pleasing anyone else. Beyond worrying about the opinions of others,
calm or unconcerned about my own, I await the blows of whatever words
may fall upon me.[13]

However, anyone who reads the conventionally obsequious opening of
the dedicatory epistle to Bishop Lysiard would have difficulty