Books with title The Duel

“The Duel: A military Tale” is one of the best-known short stories written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). First published in 1906, the tale is centered around the irreconcilable rivalry between two French officials serving Napoleon’s army.This edition is enriched with two other Conrad’s texts: “A Personal Record”, an autobiographical work written in 1912, and “Notes on My Books”, a 1920 essay on his writings.

The Duel is one of Chekhov's longest works, skirting the edge between novel and novella. Like many of Chekhov's works, it was first published as a serial. Laevsky is a womanizing drunkard, a slave to life's vices. His wantonness clashes with the moralistic zoologist Von Koren, who grows to despise Laevsky. Their mutual enmity culminates in a duel-though neither they, nor their friends, really want it to happen.

The Duel by Joseph Conrad is Conrad's brilliantly ironic tale about two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army who, under a futile pretext, fought an on-going series of duels throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Over decades, on every occasion they chanced to meet, they fought. Both satiric and deeply sad, this masterful tale treats both the futility of war and the absurdity of false honor, war's necessary accessory.

Joseph Conrad's novella "The Duel" regards the story of Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud, a fervent Bonapartist and obsessive duelist. Following a near fatal duel with the nephew of the mayor of Strasborg, Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert is sent to put Feraud under house arrest. This confrontation sets in motion a series of indecisive duels between the two over the course of the next several years. Conrad's "The Duel" is based upon the real life events of two French Hussar officers named Dupont and Fournier-Sarlovèze, who over the course of nineteen years fought over thirty duels. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, the conflict between the two men is a gripping period piece in which Conrad constructs an analogy to the conflict of all men.

Gambling, alcohol and flirtations consummated in a beautiful countryside hold obvious attractions for Laevsky. Laevsky and his lover Nadyezhda are lovers. They came to flee Nadyezhda’s husband and to live together in their own home. Instead, they remain in rented rooms. Laevsky drinks, gambles, and blankly performs the few tasks necessary in his government job. He spends much of his time figuring out how to get away from Nadyezhda, whom he has grown to hate. Nadyezhda herself is bored and has affairs. Von Koren, another character in the story, is an arrogant man of science. He believes that creatures like Laevsky who do no good should be killed, because natural selection ought to guide ethical decisions. He tries to act out his plan when the two duel.

Napoleon I., whose career had the quality of a duel against the whole of Europe, disliked duelling between the officers of his army. The great military emperor was not a swashbuckler, and had little respect for tradition. Nevertheless, a story of duelling, which became a legend in the army, runs through the epic of imperial wars. To the surprise and admiration of their fellows, two officers, like insane artists trying to gild refined gold or paint the lily, pursued a private contest through the years of universal carnage. They were officers of cavalry, and their connection with the high-spirited but fanciful animal which carries men into battle seems particularly appropriate. It would be difficult to imagine for heroes of this legend two officers of infantry of the line, for example, whose fantasy is tamed by much walking exercise, and whose valour necessarily must be of a more plodding kind. As to gunners or engineers, whose heads are kept cool on a diet of mathematics, it is simply unthinkable

Napoleon I., whose career had the quality of a duel against the whole of Europe, disliked duelling between the officers of his army. The great military emperor was not a swashbuckler, and had little respect for tradition. Nevertheless, a story of duelling, which became a legend in the army, runs through the epic of imperial wars. To the surprise and admiration of their fellows, two officers, like insane artists trying to gild refined gold or paint the lily, pursued a private contest through the years of universal carnage. They were officers of cavalry, and their connection with the high-spirited but fanciful animal which carries men into battle seems particularly appropriate. It would be difficult to imagine for heroes of this legend two officers of infantry of the line, for example, whose fantasy is tamed by much walking exercise, and whose valour necessarily must be of a more plodding kind. As to gunners or engineers, whose heads are kept cool on a diet of mathematics, it is simply unthinkable.

The Duel by Joseph Conrad is Conrad's brilliantly ironic tale about two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army who, under a futile pretext, fought an on-going series of duels throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Over decades, on every occasion they chanced to meet, they fought. Both satiric and deeply sad, this masterful tale treats both the futility of war and the absurdity of false honor, war's necessary accessory.

The Duel by Joseph Conrad, 1908. Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924) was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. He joined the British merchant marine in 1878, and was granted British nationality in 1886. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist. His stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an impassive, inscrutable universe.