Thread: Atonement by Ian McEwan

A love of order also shaped the principles of justice, with death and marriage the engines of housekeeping, the former being set aside exclusively for the morally dubious, the latter a reward withheld until the final page.
(part one, one)

I'm trying to understand the construction of the sentence. It seems to me that some words were dropped in it (I mean ellipsis). I think that to be complete it must look like this:

A love of order also shaped the principles of justice, with death and marriage being the engines of housekeeping, the former (death) being set aside exclusively for the morally dubious, the latter (marriage) being set aside exclusively for a reward withheld until the final page.

Am I right?

I think it works as it is, but it just seems to be rather verbose. What you added isn't wrong, but it makes the sentence even more wordy and convoluted. A lot of writers try to avoid saying "being," in a lot of scenarios, simply because it sounds bad. You could add, "with death and marriage acting as the engines of housekeeping," which doesn't sound great, but makes it more clear, and I think it sounds better than "being." That's just my two cents; I'm sure others disagree.

Oldboy, your fillers are not quite correct because "set aside exclusively for" applies only to death here, while the final part of the sentence is just "[marriage being] a reward...".

A love of order also shaped the principles of justice, with death and marriage being the engines of housekeeping, the former (death) being set aside exclusively for the morally dubious, the latter (marriage) being set aside exclusively for a reward withheld until the final page.

bitpicker, sperk, thanks a lot.