"'dancer in darkness" is a unique three-way collaboration - the tragic tale of the murdered giovanna d'aragona, duchess of amalfi, as told in renaissance italian sources, then in "the duchess of malfi, "john webster's masterpiece of jacobean revenge and fate, and now here by david stacton, the literally incomparable american historical novelist. black as stage velvet, stacton's version is as full of chilling insights and dreadful doings as webster's, but at bottom all his own.' john crowley ("little, big, engine summer") 'the prose of david stacton is like that of no other writer. it suggests a corridor in a dark gothic tower, ill-lit by tapers, at one end of which a gong sounds incessantly. stacton's gong clashes are malevolent aphorisms, asides spoken to nemesis, hard little explanations of motive.' "time " ""