her ways and habits the topic of many a husbandry man

[yamahuo]

Question sentence:
her girlish ways and curious habits the topic of many an excited husbandry man to whom yesterday she was a stranger without honor or allure.

Question:
what is the connection between "her girlish ways and curious habits" and "the topic of...", and there is no verb find in this sentence. can someone help me to analyze this sentence grammarly? Thank you!

Original paragraph :
Chickens do not always enjoy an honorable position among city-bred people, although the egg, I notice, goes on and on. Right now the hen is in favor. The war has deified her and she is the darling of the home front, feted at conference tables, praised in every smoking car, her girlish ways and curious habits the topic of many an excited husbandryman to whom yesterday she was a stranger without honor or allure.

William Zinsser. “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction。”

 

[dojibear]

The "question sentence" is not a sentence. It is a clause within the sentence that starts with "The war had deified her..."

As a clause, it doesn't need a verb. The clause says that her "girlish ways and curious habits" were the topic of conversation talked about by many an excited husbandryman...

Whatever a "husbandryman" is...and a "smoking car"...and I wonder what "war" was happening "right now". This whole paragraph appears to be written around 1945.

 

[ewie]

Welcome to the forum, Yamahuo

Question sentence:
her girlish ways and curious habits the topic of many an excited husbandry man to whom yesterday she was a stranger without honor or allure.

That's not a sentence: it's only a fragment of a sentence.
Does it help if I insert all the elided verbs from the full sentence?

The war has deified her and she is the darling of the home front, she is feted at conference tables, she is praised in every smoking car, her girlish ways and curious habits are the topic of many an excited husbandryman to whom yesterday she was a stranger without honor or allure.

 

[rhitagawr]

If there were a verb, it would be ...habits are the topic... So the girlish ways and curious habits of chickens are now the topic of conversation among husbandrymen.
This style sounds literary. Stylistically, the quote's better without a verb. The sentence is more balanced. The previous phrases haven't got verbs unless you could the past participles feted and praised.
Welcome to the forum, Yamahuo.
Cross-posted.

 

[yamahuo]

Welcome to the forum, Yamahuo

That's not a sentence: it's only a fragment of a sentence.
Does it help if I insert all the elided verbs from the full sentence?

very helpful, thanks!

 

[yamahuo]

The "question sentence" is not a sentence. It is a clause within the sentence that starts with "The war had deified her..."

As a clause, it doesn't need a verb. The clause says that her "girlish ways and curious habits" were the topic of conversation talked about by many an excited husbandryman...

Whatever a "husbandryman" is...and a "smoking car"...and I wonder what "war" was happening "right now". This whole paragraph appears to be written around 1945.

thanks a lot

 

[yamahuo]

If there were a verb, it would be ...habits are the topic... So the girlish ways and curious habits of chickens are now the topic of conversation among husbandrymen.
This style sounds literary. Stylistically, the quote's better without a verb. The sentence is more balanced. The previous phrases haven't got verbs unless you could the past participles feted and praised.
Welcome to the forum, Yamahuo.
Cross-posted.

very helpful, thank you!

 

[bearded]

her girlish ways and curious habits the topic

What about ''her girlish ways and curious habits being the topic...''?
Since a verb is missing, an implicit ''being'' seems to me more suitable than ''were''.

 

[rhitagawr]

What about ''her girlish ways and curious habits being the topic...''?

That would work.