"The frenzied, often fatal, attempts of sensitive men to escape their pointless rounds in the cities, garrisons, and far-flung reaches of Tsarist Russia are the central theme of The Duel and these selected stories. Praised by Communist and Western critics alike for exposing the universal abyss, Kuprin also indicts those trapped inside it—too worn to respond to one another's cries for love, capable at best of minor self-improvements at the expense of fellow sufferers."—from back cover Signet Classics, CD45