Purple prose

In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself.[1] Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors. When it is limited to certain passages, they may be termed purple patches or purple passages, standing out from the rest of the work.

This article is about the literary term. For the album by Deep Purple, see Purple Passages.

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 a somewhat subjective decision. According to Paul West, "It takes a certain amount of sass to speak up for prose that's rich, succulent and full of novelty. Purple is immoral, undemocratic and insincere; at best artsy, at worst the exterminating angel of depravity."[2]

Origins

The term purple prose is derived from a reference by the Roman poet Horace[3][4] (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 BC) who wrote in his Ars Poetica (lines 14–21):[5]

Inceptis grauibus plerumque et magna professis purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter adsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianae et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros aut flumen Rhenum aut pluuius describitur arcus; sed nunc non erat his locus. Et fortasse cupressum scis simulare; quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes nauibus, aere dato qui pingitur?

Weighty openings and grand declarations often Have one or two purple patches tacked on, that gleam Far and wide, when Diana's grove and her altar, The winding stream hastening through lovely fields, Or the river Rhine, or the rainbow’s being described. There’s no place for them here. Perhaps you know how To draw a cypress tree: so what, if you’ve been given Money to paint a sailor plunging from a shipwreck In despair?[6][7]

See also

• Description, one of four rhetorical modes, along with exposition, argumentation, and narration
• Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, to find "the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels"
• Elegant variation, unnecessary use of synonyms
• Euphuism, deliberate excess of literary devices fashionable in 1580s English prose
• Order of the Occult Hand, smuggles the phrase "It was as if an occult hand had…" into published copy

Notes

1. "A Word a Day – purple prose". Wordsmith.org. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
2. West, Paul (15 December 1985). "In Defense of Purple Prose". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
3. Nixon, Cheryl (2008). Novel Definitions. Broadview Press. pp. 194–. ISBN 978-1770482074. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
4. Macrone, Michael (1994). It's Greek to Me. HarperCollins. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0062720443. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
5. Horace (18 BC). Ars Poetica. Lines 14–21.
6. Kline, A. S. (2005). "Horatti Flacci Ars Poetica – epistulae 3". Retrieved June 17, 2019.
7. Alternative translation:

   Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy
   
   purple patches; as when describing
   
   a sacred grove, or the altar of Diana,
   
   or a stream meandering through fields,
   
   or the river Rhine, or a rainbow;
   
   but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render
   
   a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint
   
   a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?

References

• Coles Editorial Board, Dictionary of Literary Terms, Rama Brothers, 2001.