What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men's existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?

Summary

This quote suggests that a novel is an embodiment of our belief in the existence of other people. It argues that a novel creates a vividly imagined world that is even more clear and authentic than reality itself. Through carefully chosen episodes, a novel surpasses the superficiality of factual history books, exposing a deeper truth about humanity. It implies that novels possess a power to illuminate and understand the complexities of human existence in a way that factual accounts often fail to achieve.

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