@ZachWeinersmith IIRC Alexandre Dumas and Jules Vernes also had a lot of nonfiction interspersed. Don't just take my word on it but IIRC they sold their stories chapter by chapter and had little incentive to be more direct like in modern novels. I guess they wanted to make good use of all that background they researched (or played someone to, in the case of Alexandre Dumas) and make some time to think the plot ahead