[Vocabulary] stroke violence stroke boredom

[englishhobby]

I can't make out what the words "stroke violence stroke boredom" mean in the following sentence (I even can't define what parts of speech they are):

Of course modern literature lacks the impact of that of the 19th century, since nowadays it is at least possible to escape the misery of finding out that you have made the biggest mistake of your life without becoming a social outcast, unlike 150 or so years ago when the only escape from the unremitting callousness stroke violence stroke boredom was the death of one or other of the parties involved.

Could you help?

 

[bhaisahab]

Where is that text from?

 

[englishhobby]

It's from a CPE listening exam sample:
http://www.examenglish.com/cpe/CPE_listening1.htm

 

[Skrej]

I would guess by her intonation that she's reading some punctuation marks, such as "callousness/violence/boredom" where 'stroke' represents the / symbol.

I'll need a BrE speaker to confirm that though, since in AmE we would read the / symbol as 'slash', or "callousness slash violence slash boredom".