Also published as The Duel, Joseph Conrad's 1908 short novel The Point of Honor was adapted to film as the elegant The Duellists, Ridley Scott's 1977 film debut. Fans of the film will find Joseph Conrad's book a bit softer, but no less entertaining, than the brutal, uncompromising Napoleonic-era vendetta of animalistic Feraud against gentle, sensitive D'Hubert. A "point of honor" is defined as a "concern that seriously affects the perception of your honor," yet it is hard to discern which point of honor began the twenty-year series of duels between the two officers. Reportedly based on the repeated battles of a real pair of Napoleon's staff, Joseph Conrad's masterful plotting and deep human insight and empathy are at their best in this short, satisfying tale of revenge, survival, and, at the end, pity.

Author Biography

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 citizenship in 1886. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an impassive, inscrutable universe. Conrad is considered an early modernist, though his works still contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced numerous authors and many films have been adapted from, or inspired by, his works. Writing in the heyday of the British Empire, Conrad drew on his native Poland's national experiences and his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world-including imperialism and colonialism-and that profoundly explore the human psyche.