NOTES

a plain and simple explanation of the facts

Justine discounts how much eloquence counts in her world, and in this novel (see, for instance, I:L4:24and note). But if a plain, unvarnished recital of facts cannot exonerate one, the novel asks, in what does truth exist? Compare Mary Wollstonecraft's disavowal of eloquence at multiple points in A Vindication.