Joseph Conrad 
The Point Of Honor 

The Point Of Honor – Joseph Conrad – 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.

About the author

Joseph Conrad (born Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857 3 August 1924) was a Polish-born novelist. Some of his works have been labelled romantic: Conrad’s supposed ‘romanticism’ is heavily imbued with irony and a fine sense of man’s capacity for self-deception. Many critics regard Conrad as an important forerunner of Modernist literature. Conrad’s narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many writers, including Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, Joseph Heller and Jerzy Kosinski, as well as inspiring such films as Apocalypse Now (which was drawn from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness).