How to assess “an access of butchness”

Solution 1:

From Jonathan's Franzen's Freedom (2011): "Patty did her utmost to play this role, but finally, in an access of depression, she sat down..." (p. 183). Consonant with usage 1 in the Shorter Oxford.

Nb Mind you, the copy I have of Freedom is the uncorrected first UK edition, which was pulped since it was not printed from the final proofs, and includes hundreds of mistakes. So if ever this usage was likely to be a typo for 'excess' this would be the instance! (But, of course, it is not.)

Solution 2:

It's a rare, but perfectly normal, usage: my Chambers dictionary gives one meaning of access as 'addition or accession', which probably gives a clue to the derivation. Dictionary.com has a quotation:

"... protesting against this unprecedented access of generosity. The very picture, as MCEWAN said, of a good man struggling with the adversity of overwhelming good fortune."

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, May 9, 1891 • Various

And it seems altogether more likely than a repeated misprint for 'delighted by an excess'.