About This Book Her mourth was almost pressed against his, and her words were like quick, hurried kisses: "You must absolutely go through with the duel tomorrow." This rediscovered gem by a major, yet neglected, writer -- here presented in a dazzling new translation -- is an absorbing account of the final days of Czarist Russia. An absorbing saga about the brutalities of military life upon its own soldiers. Stranded at a distant outpost, young Romashov finds himself obliged to fight a duel -- over something he realizes is meaningless. As the novel hurtles toward a startling conclusion, it reveals itself to be a luminous depiction of the end of an era. This Is A Melville House "HybridBook" HybridBooks are a union of print and electronic media: Purchasers of this print edition also receive Illuminations--additional curated material that expand the world of Kuprin's novella through text and illustrations--at no additional charge. To obtain the Illuminations for The Duel by Alexander Kuprin, simply scan the QR code (or follow a url) found at the back of the print book, which leads to a page where you can download a file for your preferred electronic reading device. "Illuminations" contains writings by Leo Tolstoy - Fyodor Dostoevsky - Alexander Pushkin - Rudyard Kipling - Abraham Yarmolinsky - Ivan Turgenev - Anton Chekhov - Anton Chekhov - Mikhail Lermontov - Alexandre Dumas - Thomas Hardy - Emily Dickinson - Rudolphe Raspe - Emily Dickinson and short stories by O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant and Alexander Kuprin. Illustrations include: Victor Adams - Etienne Prosper Berne-Bellecour - Valery Ivanovich Jacoby - Eugene Delacroix and others. Also included is The Duelist's Supplement - "The Other Duel: Fiction and Poetry Concerning Duels"