WINNER OF THE PRIX RENAUDOT AND THE RTL-LIRE GRAND PRIZE
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Milady doesn’t cry. She takes revenge.

“This portrait of a free woman is heartrending, magnificent... A true jewel! Alexandre Dumas would recognize his own heroine in Clermont-Tonnerre’s creation. A gripping novel.”—France 2 

Together with Shakespeare’s Iago and Milton’s Satan, Milady de Winter is among literature’s most infamous villains. She is the enigmatic woman whose poisonous beauty, ineffable intelligence, and bloodcurdling ruthlessness haunt the pages of The Three Musketeers. Yet in Dumas’s beloved classic she remains a foil, a symbol of female perfidy and dark power rather than a fully realized woman with her own story and her own rich inner life.

Indeed, Milady de Winter was once Anne, a child fleeing poverty and violence and the cruelty of those entrusted with her care. At a time of glaring inequalities, in a kingdom ruled by powerful men and their armed foot soldiers, survival requires cunning and constant reinvention. Names become disguises. Love becomes leverage. Every act comes with a price. From this world of intrigue and menace, emerges Milady de Winter.

As Milady navigates the perils of seventeenth-century France, moving from convents and noble households to the shadowy networks of Cardinal Richelieu’s spies, she discovers that true power is rarely granted to women—it must be seized, or stolen, and then concealed. 

Winner of France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot, Milady is neither a retelling nor a correction of Dumas’s novel. Instead, Clermont-Tonnerre has created something entirely new and remarkable by giving voice to Anne de Winter and transforming a legendary, little-understood villain into a complicated and compelling heroine. With extraordinary narrative and emotional intelligence, Milady brings the swashbuckling world of Bourbon France to life, combining an exhilarating adventure with a profound meditation on power, justice, and the erasure of women’s stories. An unforgettable portrait of one woman determined to overcome everything thrown at her, even the limitations of her own creator.

A FEMINIST REIMAGINING OF A CLASSIC STORY: One of literature’s most notorious villains takes center stage as Clermont-Tonnerre returns to the world of The Three Musketeers to tell the story Dumas left untold—who Milady was, what made her, and why she wanted revenge.

CLASSIC ADVENTURE, CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE: A sweeping, propulsive tale of love, betrayal, intrigue, and revenge that combines the pleasures of swashbuckling fiction with a contemporary exploration of gender, power, freedom, and justice.

A WOMAN IN CONTROL OF HER OWN STORY: Neither saint nor simple victim, Milady emerges as a fiercely intelligent, complicated woman fighting to control her own body, her own story, and her own fate in a world determined to judge her.

FOR READERS OF MATRIX, CIRCE, DEMON COPPERHEAD, AND HAMNET: A bold reimagining of a familiar story that invites readers to see an iconic character—and a literary classic—from an entirely new perspective.

PRIZE-WINNING AND BESTSELLING: Winner of the 2025 Prix Renaudot and a bestseller in France, Milady combines literary ambition with the pace and sweep of a historical adventure.

A STANDALONE HISTORICAL NOVEL: Fans of The Three Musketeers will discover another side of a story they thought they knew, while no knowledge of Dumas is required to enjoy Milady as an epic historical novel in its own right, one that vividly recreates the world of Ancien Regime France.

FOR FANS OF PLOT-DRIVEN STORIES SET IN THE WORLD OF EUROPEAN ROYALTY: Complements emerging popular interest in 17th century French history and literature: Sofia Copppola’s Marie Antoinette, The Seduction (feminist adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses).