Product Review

Leboucher's 1843 text on how to learn cane fighting in 25 lessons is a window into the evolution of La Canne. It is also a highly practical manual on how to defend yourself with a cane, and whether or not these 25 lessons turn you into a human threshing machine capable of delivering "150 cuts per minute!" as Leboucher claims, it will certainly spark a few ideas. The excellent illustrations of sporting Frenchmen (dressed at the height of Parisian fashion for 1843) braining, swatting, thrashing, and maiming one another with whizzing hardwood canes are sure to amuse and enlighten.