The Duel by Joseph Conrad is Conrad''s brilliantly ironic 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 treats both the futility of war and the absurdity of false honor, war''s necessary accessory.