"David R. Slavitt writes the best sentence in America today. His remarkable fluency is an unfailing delight as he deconstructs and at the same time brilliantly reconstructs Alexandre Dumas' novel La Dame de Monsoreau. Here, in all fullness, are Louis de Bussy d'Amboise, 'the brave Bussy'; sixteenth-century France; an interrogation of the historical novel as a genre; and a witty but profoundly felt, unobscured look at the pure wickedness of our 'human' species. What more could anyone ask for?" –Kelly Cherry, author of The Woman Who