Sentence:  Joyce's objection was founded in [...] a reaction to the doggedly linear, heavily patterned artifice of the nineteenth-century novel, the <WSD>verisimilar</WSD> credentials of which existed – so, at any rate, the argument runs – in inverse proportion to the conventionality of its narrative style. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Appearing to be true or real; probable; likely.