Lazard. Just saying it makes me feel superior and effete. But how much do we really know about that firm of “Great Men”? (Not much, although I once heard they only hire good looking people.)

Well, that shroud of mystery will soon be no more: a top ex-Lazard banker is out with a book that tells all. According to the WSJ, execs at Lazard are all abuzz with photocopied versions of the 700-page book, titled The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.

In fact, several Lazard alums contributed to the book, including Felix Rohatyn, Michel David-Weill and Steve Rattner. Not Bruce Wasserstein, however, who the author, William Cohan, describes as “an incredible opportunist [who] took advantage of Michel … He took Lazard public [with a $30 million investment], and his stake is now worth $600 million.”

The Last Tycoons, which will be available to the public on April 17, has no user reviews yet on the Amazon page, and horribly bland cover art. That isn’t hurting its pre-sales, however. The WSJ reported that its Amazon sales rank was 110,599 yesterday; today it’s 71.

The book’s description from Amazon below:

“A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street’s most storied investment bank

Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, pay their executives in the tens of millions of dollars. But even among the most powerful firms, Lazard Frères & Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategy were its weapons of choice. For more than a century, the mystique and reputation of the “Great Men” who worked there allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, their titanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men of Lazard jeopardized all they had built.

William D. Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazard and presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through the tumultuous history of this exalted and fascinating company. Cohan deconstructs the explosive feuds between Felix Rohatyn and Steve Rattner, superstar investment bankers and pillars of New York society, and between the man who controlled Lazard, the inscrutable French billionaire Michel David-Weill, and his chosen successor, Bruce Wasserstein.

Cohan follows Felix, the consummate adviser, as he reshapes corporate America in the 1970s and 1980s, saves New York City from bankruptcy, and positions himself in New York society and in Washington. Felix’s dreams are dashed after the arrival of Steve, a formidable and ambitious former newspaper reporter. By the mid-1990s, as Lazard neared its 150th anniversary, Steve and Felix were feuding openly.

The internal strife caused by their arguments could not be solved by the imperious Michel, whose manipulative tendencies served only to exacerbate the trouble within the firm. Increasingly desperate, Michel took the unprecedented step of relinquishing operational control of Lazard to one of the few Great Men still around, Bruce Wasserstein, then fresh from selling his own M&A boutique, for $1.4 billion. Bruce’s take: more than $600 million. But it turned out Great Man Bruce had snookered Great Man Michel when the Frenchman was at his most vulnerable.

The Last Tycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections, and enormous wealth—a story of high drama in the world of high finance.”