"How do you know that?"
I blushed.
"People have told me it is."
"Poor boy! People have told you!... Read for yourself and then you will have an opinion."
"What must I read?"
"Why, there is a whole world of it: Joinville, Froissart, Monstrelet, Châtelain, Juvénal des Ursins, Montluc, Saulx-Tavannes, l'Estoile, Cardinal de Retz, Saint-Simon, Villars, Madame de la Fayette, Richelieu ... and so I could go on."
"How many volumes do those make?"
"Probably between two and three hundred."
"And you have read them?"
"Certainly."