Reality or Verasimilitude?

One of my English profs in college often spoke about verasimilitude. I've wondered how I came to remember that phrase. I suppose because it struck me as rather significant. The Free Dictionary defines the word as

1.  the appearance or semblance of truth or reality; quality of seeming true
2. something that merely seems to be true or real, such as a doubtful statement [from Latin vērisimilitūdō, from vērus true + similitūdō similitude]

That's what I try to do with my historical novels., give them the appearance or semblance of truth or reality. I try to give them verasimilitude.


In the nineteenth century German historian Leopold von Ranke attempted to go beyond verasimilitude in writing about history. Impressed by the great leaps in science, he urged historians to write wie es eigentlich gewessen ist, how it actually has been. This phrase has been the source of much wrangling. What does it mean? Can a writer ever portray all that happened and why?  


We historical story tellers are not bound by such restrictions. One current example is the script for the movie Valkyrie. This story has the appearance or semblance of truth. It actually has many things that are true, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. Many background parts of the story were left out. This was not wie es eigentlich gewessen ist. Why do I say that?

Well, for one thing, the movie fails to tell the part that Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his family played in the plot to assasinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor, hanged by the Nazis for the part he played, but also for helping some Jews to escape Germany. If you know nothing about him, please follow the links above, as well as the many others available online and elsewhere.

There were sinister forces, dark, unseen forces, at work behind the human events of WW II. In my novel, Freya's Child, I attempt to demonstrate that reality. When you read the novel you'll have to decide for yourself whether or not this was wie es eigentlich gewessen ist or merely verasimilitude.

History And The Search For Peace For Our Time

In our day there is such a blur of information coming from all directions. How does one make sense of it all? And yet, for those elected officials entrusted with the welfare and safety of millions in our nation, making sense and making decisions based upon that information is absolutely essential.

Lest this statement be seen as abstract, a vital lesson can be drawn from the history leading up to World War II. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" speech and the pact he signed with Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany is the prime example.

Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" speech@Everything2.com

On September 30, 1938 (71 years ago now), Chamberlain returned from Munich after having agreed to the Munich Pact the day before. Standing before the Prime Minister's house at 10 Downing Street in London, he said,

"We, the German Fuehrer and Chancellor and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe.

"We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

"We are resolved the the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time . . . Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

A year later Germany invaded Poland, a clear violation of the Pact. Britain was forced to declare war on Germany. The German army had been building up for this since the time Hitler had signed the Pact a year before. The rest is history.

My forthcoming novel is set in the United States in the fall of 1939, during that very time when the British Empire has declared war on Nazi Germany. There is strong sentiment that the United States stay out of yet another European war. A little more than two years after that, on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was forced to declare war both on Japan and upon Nazi Germany, Japan's ally.

The lessons from this recent history for us all are many. Many of us have heard Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana's quote, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." We've also encountered Henry Ford's comment, "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today."

By the way, Henry Ford was awarded Germany's highest decoration for foreigners, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, in July, 1938, on his seventy-fifth birthday.