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’T is strange; – but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!

– Lord Byron

The term Stranger Than Fiction refers to circumstances so bizarre or unexpected that they seem too strange to be fictional. Lord Byron first used the phrase in his satirical and epic poem Don Juan (1824). He wanted to emphasize how real events have the potential to be more extraordinary and surprising than events a writer could ever imagine. The term is often used to describe inexplicable …