Literary notes about Verisimilitude (AI summary)
Literary works often strive for verisimilitude—a quality that imbues a narrative with a compelling sense of reality and truth—even when the content is imaginative. Authors may use detailed descriptions, precise dialogue, or carefully constructed settings to convince readers of the narrative’s authenticity, as when exactness in a journey imbues it with an air of truth ([1]) or when small narrative details enhance the overall plausible impact ([2]). In some cases, maintaining verisimilitude means balancing factual precision with artistic license, ensuring that the imaginative elements still resonate with everyday experience ([3]). Critics even note that the success of historical or poetic works can depend on how well they evoke this resemblance to truth, making verisimilitude a fundamental measure of literary credibility ([4]).
- He is describing an actual journey, and his exactness makes a part of the verisimilitude.
— from Among My Books. Second Series by James Russell Lowell - The details that Harry supplies give an air of verisimilitude to his narrative.
— from Sir William Wallace by Alexander Falconer Murison - Yet they are vividly if broadly sketched, and genuine touches of human nature lend verisimilitude to their most improbable actions.
— from Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 2 - The principle of verisimilitude and of probability in fact dominates all historical criticism.
— from Æsthetic as science of expression and general linguistic by Benedetto Croce
