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Purple prose is criticized for desaturating the meaning in an author's text by overusing melodramatic and fanciful descriptions. As there is no precise rule or absolute definition of what constitutes purple prose, deciding if a text, passage, or complete work has fallen victim is subjective.
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flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and
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This article is about the literary term. For the album by Deep Purple, see
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Prose text that is overwritten in a way that disrupts a narrative flow
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but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render
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a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint
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To draw a cypress tree: so what, if you've been given
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There's no place for them here. Perhaps you know how
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The winding stream hastening through lovely fields,
117:sed nunc non erat his locus. Et fortasse cupressum
154:Money to paint a sailor plunging from a shipwreck
119:scis simulare; quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
383:Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy
115:aut flumen Rhenum aut pluuius describitur arcus;
113:et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros
104:Inceptis grauibus plerumque et magna professis
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128:Weighty openings and grand declarations often
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357:"Horatti Flacci Ars Poetica – epistulae 3"
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345:Horace (18 BC). Ars Poetica. Lines 14–21.
111:adsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianae
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408:a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?
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148:, or the rainbow's being described.
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121:nauibus, aere dato qui pingitur?
390:a sacred grove, or the altar of
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252:West, Paul (15 December 1985).
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228:"A Word a Day – purple prose"
191:, unnecessary use of synonyms
171:Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
134:patches tacked on, that gleam
426:Dictionary of Literary Terms
254:"In Defense of Purple Prose"
388:patches; as when describing
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312:Macrone, Michael (1994).
201:Order of the Occult Hand
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462:Descriptive technique
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457:Fiction-writing mode
136:Far and wide, when
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281:Novel Definitions
189:Elegant variation
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156:In despair?
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18:Purple patch
442:Narratology
263:26 December
237:26 December
183:Description
93:Ars Poetica
436:Categories
419:References
207:Verbosity
177:Concision
107:purpureus
82:The term
72:Paul West
56:metaphors
51:narrative
362:June 17,
195:Euphuism
165:See also
447:Fiction
78:Origins
467:Horace
386:purple
331:19 May
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297:19 May
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132:purple
88:Horace
400:Rhine
392:Diana
214:Notes
146:Rhine
138:Diana
47:prose
364:2019
333:2013
320:ISBN
299:2013
286:ISBN
265:2014
239:2014
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