FURIOSO

A World War II rerun of The Three Musketeers or How Three French Commandos and a Gestapo Double Agent Managed to Outwit Hitler and Permanently Postpone the Invasion of England. History turns on a set of faked photographs showing some more-than-licit relations between Queen Elizabeth and a military attache of the German Embassy, but sixteen year-old Philippe de Maupertus, the giant La Castagne, swashbuckling David Belletoise and S.S. lieutenant-colonel Breval of the ravaged face manage to come through in the very nick of time against more than surmountable odds -- which is what this kind of novel is about. All is not hairpin escapes and sexual games, however, for the dark side of the party is a brilliantly nightmarish account of a fascinatingly perverted gladiatorial Germany, where the idea of a good time is gangbanging Jewish, gypsy, or Arab prisoners or cutting off various parts of their body in the most gruesome way possible. Count Cagliostro makes a fine translation from the French of this fast, highly readable novel, full of exclamation marks, argot, and fearful admonitions to its characters -- a curious mixture of fun and horror and a bestseller over there.