Historical truth stubbornly resists the storyteller s shaping instincts.
Evidence
Historical truth is a rough beast—shapeless, blundering, hard to tame. It fights you every step. It cuts against storyteller’s instinct. Your characters are never how or where you’d like them to be. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 874
Categorization
- XREF: XREF to historical fiction constraints versus pure invention. — connects to: Historical fiction offers a subjective interpretation rather than a photographic replica — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 766; Historical events become communicable only by being turned into stories.; The rise-of-the-middle-class narrative is a fabricated historical impression, not fact (+6 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 874