The Hussar

Here, from the author of Alice at 80 and many other highly acclaimed books, is a small gem of a novel, an exquisitely crafted, finely honed work in the grand tradition of the middle European novel of the last century. Indeed, David R. Slavitt's The Hussar takes its inspiration from one such novel, A Man of Honor, by the German writer Theodore Fontane. Having read and been intrigued by a plot description of that work, Slavitt determined to attempt the story of A Man of Honor on his own and then to compare his version with Fontane's original. The result of this 'literary parlor game' is nothing less than a tour de force.