Publisher's Synopsis
Conrad's brilliantly ironic, swashbuckling tale about two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army who, under a futile pretext, fought an on-going series of duels throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Over decades, on every occasion they chanced to meet, they fought. Both satiric and deeply sad, this masterful tale addresses both the futility of war and the absurdity of false honour, war's necessary accessory.
