While rereading 
The Hobbit, I found a similar sentence - and that's in a children's book! Tolkien does make sure he provokes linguistic growth in his readers...
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				It was a hard path and a dangerous path, a crooked way and a lonely and a long.  
(Chapter IV, "Over Hill and Under Hill"
			
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 I would agree that the usage is primarily about rhythm.
		
 
		
		
		
		
		
		
			
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				'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth..
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