7.8 /10 1 Votes
Originally published 1905 | 3.9/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Works by Alexander Herzen, Classical Studies books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Duel (Russian: Поединок; Poedinok) is a novel by Russian author Aleksandr Kuprin published in 1905. It is generally considered his best work; even though Kuprin's 1896 short story Moloch first made his name known as a writer it was The Duel (1905) which made him famous. Because of it "Kuprin was highly praised by fellow writers including Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Nobel Prize-winning Ivan Bunin" and Leo Tolstoy who acclaimed him a true successor to Chekhov.
Contents
Synopsis
It concerns an intelligent young officer, Second Lieutenant Romashov, stationed at a dull military garrison in southern Russia where he can not stomach his sadistic and stupid colleagues and military life. He falls in love with the wife of a superior officer, a cold and calculating woman whose one ambition is her husband's advancement. The affair leads in the end to the duel of the title, both externally, and figuratively through the young mans naive dreams of grandeur confronting the degeneration of military life and society of the time.
Critical reception
The novel was published soon after the end of the Russo-Japanese War — which Russia lost – and many saw it as a political criticism of the Russian military system. Kuprin considered himself a realist and uninterested in politics, but the timing of the work and Kuprin's own experience in the military – he served seven years as an Army Lieutenant starting in 1890 – led many to give it special political relevance. Translator Josh Billings (2011) said the novel was partly a "revenge on the rosily-romantic picture of garrison life made popular by the warmongering of the early 1900s."
Adaptations
A Soviet adaption to film was made in 1982, called Shurochka with screenplay and direction by Iosif Kheifits, starring Yelena Finogeyeva, Andrei Nikolayev and Lyudmila Gurchenko. A Russian television adaptation was shown on Russian TV 1 June 9 and 10, 2014.