The Duel by Anton Chekhov, is a classic exploration of the human mind told through the eyes of different people striving for the same thing: to forget the days they lost and make the best of the days they still have.
Published in 1891, this morality tale pits a scientist, a government worker, his mistress, a deacon, and a physician against one another in a verbal battle of wits and ethics that explodes into a violent contest: a duel to the death.
When Laevsky, a lazy youth who works for the government, tires of his clingy mistress, , Von Koren, the scientist, delivers a scathing critique of Loevsky's egotism, forcing the young man to look inward and examine his very soul.
The Duel is classic Chekhov, the supreme Russian master of the short story, revealing the multifaceted essence of human nature.
ANTON CHEKHOV (1860–1904) was a Russian author and physician, considered to be among the greatest writers in history. His career produced numerous classics including The Cherry Orchard, The Duel, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theater. Always modest, Chekhov could hardly have imagined the extent of his posthumous reputation. Ovations for The Cherry Orchard in the year of his death showed him how high he had risen in the affection of the Russian public--by then he was second in literary celebrity only to Tolstoy. After his death, Chekhov's fame spread further. Constance Garnett's translations won him an international readership and the admiration of writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Katherine Mansfield.
