Literature

Anton P. Chekhov, "The Duel" | Mark Twain | Joseph Conrad | Guy de Maupassant | Others

Anton P. Chekhov, "The Duel"

Amazon. Anton P. Chekhov, The Duel and Other Stories (Penguin Classic).

Anton P. Chekhov, "The Duel" EText with annotations, from 201 Stories by Anton Chekhov, translations by Constance Garnett (1916-22). [ mirror ]

Anton P. Chekhov, "The Duel" Brief summary from the Literature, Arts and Medicine Database.

Mark Twain

"Chapters from My Autobiography" by Mark Twain, North American Review 183 (Dec. 21, 1906).

Mark Twain, "A Duel Prevented" from the Territorial Enterprise (1863). Humorous dispatch.

Account of Twain's abortive duel with a newspaper editor, based not on Twain but on his second. Courtesy About.com.

Three quotes from Mark Twain on dueling from www.twainquotes.com, edited by Barbara Schmidt.

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad, "The Duel" etext from Gaslight.

Guy de Maupassant

Web Archive: "A Coward" by Guy de Maupassant. Gimicky French story by the author of "The Necklace." Page design by Gary Lindquis.

Others

Down the river; or, Practical lessons under the code duello by George W. Hooper (1874). An amusing novel, lampooning the code duello and the people who lived by it; it rises to the level of Twain, but is not consistent. This Making of America edition can be viewed in (somewhat inaccurate) text or as images. The image version contains a number of funny drawings, such as the scene of one man horsewhipping another man while another examines the code duello (which approves of horsewhipping social inferiors, although the situation in the novel is somewhat different). The caption reads "It was the most beautiful Ceremony I ever witnessed." As an appendix the author includes the full texts of Gov. Wilson's Code of Honor, the definitive Antebellum Southern guide, the French code ("copied from Millingen's History of Dueling") and the 1777 (misprinted 1877) Irish code, available in better versions elsewhere on the web.

"The Home of the Duellist" a sentimental poem by L. H. Sigourney, from Pocahontas, and other poems (1841). From the Making of America.

Jack London Adventure, chapt. 27: "Modern Duelling" Two men with riffles hunt each other in the woods.

Web Archive: Honour, Duels, and Might Makes Right by David Lowes. Short paper on Shakespeare's Richard II. Illustrates the importance of honour in Shakespeare's plays.

Do you remember a duel in Austen's Sense and Sensibility? Well, there is one (though not in the movie). Enter "duel" in the search box for the various messages on the topic (which errupted a few times) from the message board of The Republic of Pemberly.

"Duel Before Dawn" by Sheri Cobb South. Short romance story, also with a trick. The details are unbelievable, but the trick is cute. From The Romantic Bower.

The Dueling Grounds A play by Eric Ferguson (1996).