Or are these tales mere anti-Communard inventions?

At least part of the personal history of Mandeville is mere invention.

I told myself that my fears were mere inventions of my mind, but I watched the shadows all the same.

The story of the drinking contest was a mere invention of Clegg's to blind Findhelm to the truth!

Scholars are unsure how much of Aristophanes' portrayal is fact and how much mere comic invention.

All these stories about people 'returning' might be mere inventions.

The mere invention, and, as we may say, charpentage, are of the first order.

Reason, however, is not a mere human invention.

The idea of a 'present' was not mere hobbitlike invention, all the same.

It is therefore misleading to comprehend customary law as a mere "invention".