Incredibly contemporary

While reading this book, I was seized with a singular emotion. Even though William M. Thackeray wrote this novel in 1844, and the main character Barry Lyndon is a man in the 18th century, there is something contemporary about Barry. In fact, you feel the same sort of affection as you feel for someone with whom you have been for years intimate. Not only the hero’s character, but also the English sentences are incredibly contemporary.
For example, how contemporary and meaningful the following sentence is!
It is well to dream of glorious war in a snug armchair at home, but it is a very different thing to see it first hand.
How about the next sentence?
Gentlemen may talk of the Age of Chivalry, but remember the ploughmen, poachers and pickpockets whom they lead. It is with these sad instruments that your great warriors and kings have been doing their murderous work in the world.
The next sentence is the one depicting Barry’s first encounter with the enemy in the