Literary notes about prevarication (AI summary)
In literature, "prevarication" is often employed to denote various shades of evasive or deceptive speech ranging from blatant falsehoods to more subtle forms of concealment. Authors use it to interrogate a character’s honesty or to emphasize the moral gravity of misrepresentation, as when a character is condemned for his deceitful tactics or when the term is used to distinguish between outright lies and artful evasion [1][2]. At times, it serves as a marker of internal conflict or hesitation in discourse, suggesting that even those adept in articulation may falter when truth is demanded [3][4]. In other contexts, the term assumes a biting tone, critiquing the calculated duplicity underlying political or personal maneuvering [5][6]. Overall, "prevarication" encapsulates the literary preoccupation with the complexity of truth and the human capacity for self-deception.
- Let us see whether we cannot defend him from this reproach of falsity and prevarication.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - When we find a person in downright lying we cover the falsehood with the finely-spun cloak of the word prevarication .
— from How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin - She seemed suddenly to have nothing to say, and she knew herself to be no good at prevarication.
— from Winding Paths by Gertrude Page - But there is another, much more subtle form of prevarication.
— from The Patient Observer and His Friends by Simeon Strunsky - Do you think I am to be put off by feminine prevarication—by womanly trickery?
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon - "Ricky, the prevarication is unworthy of you.
— from The Divine Fire by May Sinclair
