I just -- it's SUCH a good book. Unlike the other commenter, I felt it worked on every single level -- as entertainment, as critique, just, everything. That particular view of the American Revolution especially is fantastic. The last book I'd read about the American Revolution, when I was about 7, went on about Paul Revere and courageous farmers etc. etc., so this was enlightening.

the later letter praising the report because Gitney had been crying at her side.

I actually read Trefusis's letter (it was Trefusis who sent it, right?) as being savagely ironical, pointing up the inhumanity that lies in crying by a woman's deathbed and then dissecting her. Perhaps am being too inclined to read this stuff in a positive light.