The Point of Honor – Joseph Conrad
Saturday, December 16th, 2006Joseph Conrad 1863 
Here is the answer to the recent film quiz: Joeseph Conrad wrote the story of two Napoleonic soldiers engaged in duels for decades, which was adapted into a film called “The Duellists” by Ridley Scott.
NAPOLEON I, whose career had the quality of duel against the whole of Europe, disliked duelling between the officers of his army. The great military emperor was not a swashbuckler, and had little respect for tradition.
Nevertheless, a story of duelling, which became a legend in the army, runs through the epic of imperial wars. To the surprise and admiration of their fellows, two officers, like insane artists trying to gild refined gold or paint the lily, pursued a private contest through the years of universal carnage.
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The truth is that in my mind the story is nothing but a serious and even earnest attempt at a bit of historical fiction. I had heard in my boyhood a good deal of the great Napoleonic legend. I had a genuine feeling that I would find myself at home in it, and The Duel is the result of that feeling, or, if the reader prefers, of that presumption
…….because in truth that is exactly what I was trying to capture in my small net: the Spirit of the Epoch — never purely militarist in the long clash of arms, youthful, almost childlike in its exaltation of sentiment — naively heroic in its faith. 1920 J.C.
in a sailor suit. Who is she? 
