Click to Subscribe
400 Years of Insanity
Paul Kirchner: Dueling with the Sword and Pistol
© 2013 James LaFond
Usually, when I review a book on this site it is because I have read it some time ago, decided to keep it, and have recently not been able to resist the temptation to read it again. I am not a reviewer. For the most part I am just providing our readers with a heads up concerning exceptional literature. I have read a lot of lousy books in my time. I see no sense in taking up space here griping about a painful or wasteful read, when I could recommend something that you might well enjoy.
Despite my long reading list, and the 700 odd pages I must read before I can complete the novel I am working on, I could not keep my paws off of this book by my fellow Paladin Press author, who is also quite a good illustrator.
Dueling with the Sword and Pistol
400 Years of One-on-One Combat
Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 2004, 468 pages
This book is closely related to Paul’s Deadliest Men volumes, which are reviewed below under 85 Reasons to be a Pacifist. Part Four, in the back of the book, belongs in that collection. However, where Deadliest Men is a collection of mini-biographies, Dueling with the Sword and Pistol has more thematic material, since the author has to explain the ritual activities. He does this in a concise fashion and then moves directly into the meat of the book, which consists of accounts of certain duels, including the cause and aftermath.
The book is divided into major portions and two supplementary sections. Part One is a history of sword dueling from the mid 1500s through the early 1900s, told primarily through accounts of encounters between rival duelists. The highlight of this section is Chapter 11, Dueling in the Army of Napoleon. A common theme throughout the book is that each nation seems to embrace dueling according to its own peculiar psychosis. When it comes to sword dueling the crazies were the French.
Part Two covers pistol dueling, which was embraced with a disturbing intensity by the Germans. The cover of the book is telling, and places the single shot black powder pistol duel in the center of the dueling complex: in the psychological realm. When you view the fine illustration of two prissy aristocrats standing three paces apart in a dining room, between the table and an officer prepared to drop a napkin to signal the fireworks, you do not think, “Wow, what skill and training that must require.” Your first thought is, “That is insane!” My second thought was, “The spectators are nuts too, standing nearly in the field of fire—but at least they are drinking!”
As good as the rest of the book is a liked Part Three the best. This section details variations of the duel, such as mounted duels, the tale of an 18-inch tall dwarf duelist, bowie knife duels, the American frontier shootout, and even a bizarre form of suicide. My favorite line from the book comes from an 1866 newspaper report, and follows the description of a truly horrific bowie knife duel between two former CSA cavalry officers, “We understand that all the parties to this outrageous and disgraceful proceeding reside in Mississippi.”
Anyone interested in fencing, weaponry, knives, pistols, violence, or irrepressible homicidal jerks, will enjoy this journey into the mind of the ritual combatant; a lucid retrospective view of his death, and the death of his code.
Congratulations Mister Kirchner.
Captain John Godfrey on Self-Defense
book reviews
What 300 Meatheads Did For Us
eBook
taboo you
eBook
the fighting edge
eBook
when you're food
eBook
blue eyed daughter of zeus
eBook
ranger?
eBook
on combat
eBook
predation
eBook
sons of aryas
eBook
by the wine dark sea
eBook
thriving in bad places
eBook
the combat space
eBook
night city
eBook
cracker-boy
eBook
son of a lesser god
eBook
solo boxing
eBook
time & cosmos
eBook
fiction anthology one
eBook
winter of a fighting life
eBook
hate
eBook
songs of aryas
eBook
beasts of aryas
eBook
the greatest lie ever sold
eBook
america the brutal
eBook
on the overton railroad
eBook
the gods of boxing
eBook
within leviathan’s craw
eBook
fate
eBook
honor among men
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
under the god of things
eBook
your trojan whorse
eBook
the first boxers
eBook
all-power-fighting
eBook
broken dance
eBook
book of nightmares
eBook
menthol rampage
eBook
the sunset saga complete
eBook
the year the world took the z-pill
eBook
song of the secret gardener
eBook
wife—
eBook
logic of force
eBook
barbarism versus civilization
eBook
the lesser angels of our nature
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
the greatest boxer
eBook
let the world fend for itself
eBook
logic of steel
eBook
orphan nation
eBook
into leviathan’s maw
eBook
advent america
eBook
z-pill forever
eBook
masculine axis
eBook
triumph
eBook
uncle satan
eBook
fanatic
db     Mar 27, 2013

Didn't the 19th Century Germans have a rather structured duelling code? I seem to remember mark Twain having come caustic comments on the subject.
James     Mar 27, 2013

Yes Sir. If you want as many details as you can stomach read Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany, by Kevin McAleer. I read it in 2001, and rate it very highly.
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message