About This BookHer 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”