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Duel
Book by Landale, James
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 13, 2023
I absolutely loved this book. I was taking a break next to the grave of David Landale when a stranger told myself and my colleague the story. I then ordered this book and have enjoyed learning about duelling, the duel and Kirkcaldy. Definitely 5⭐️’s
August 21, 2019
This book is a wee treasure. The well researched background detail of The Duel is excellent. In fact, the whole history of mortal combat in its various forms is well covered. The author really brings to life the social norms of early 19th century Kirkcaldy and its surrounds. The requirements of gentlemanly conduct may seem strange by today's standards. The concept of honour above everything, even life itself, is something that mafia families may understand. The author covers the history of duelling and all its absurdities in depth and there are little gems like the two French officers who fought duels over 19 years, a duel which began an unwelcome message being delivered. A very enjoyable read from start to finish.
April 23, 2020
Overfondness for commas aside, this was a good read. It’s difficult to know how much credence to give Landale’s version of events. He’s writing about his own ancestor, after all, and his only comprehensive source is the defending lawyer’s notes on the trial, so the picture he paints of the other party in the duel of a cartoonishly evil ogre of a man—so evil that his own second insisted he was in the wrong, and the prosecutor at the murder trial’s entire case was “technically this was murder, but that doesn’t really seem fair, does it?”—is hard to swallow. But there’s nothing to disprove it, so. There we have it.
May 10, 2018
A pretty good microhistory of a single affair of honor, but interwoven with a fairly marginal broader history of dueling.
August 3, 2010
There are two narratives present in Duel, and as perhaps is expected in such situations, one is better than the other.
The first is the story of David Landale, an ancestor of the author, who in 1826 took part in the last fatal duel in Scotland. It covers the events leading up to the duel itself, and through to the end of the subsequent trial. It's the better of the two sections, as it's more focused though it suffers from a few flaws. The first is that Landale's sources are perhaps of questionable bias -- his primary is a record of the trial compiled by one of the counsel for the defence. When combined with his own obvious biases, the rather one-sided nature of the narrative becomes apparent. Which isn't to say that it might not be true as told, and it's unlikely that any other version will emerge given the paucity of other first-hand documentation. The second is that occasionally his prose is perhaps a little overwrought. Case in point:
The second narrative is a general history of dueling itself. It's not as interesting as the main narrative, perhaps partly because there is less personal investment but also largely because there's nothing to differentiate it from any of the other popular histories of dueling. Due to the fact that it's not the primary nature of the book, it's shallower than many, but it still manages to touch on the same themes and examples as you'd see anywhere else: medieval trial by combat, jousts (though he does make certain to note that there is no direct connection between those and dueling), the rise in popularity in early modern Europe, the formalization of the code duello, Pushkin, Hamilton/Burr, Wellington, the Irish, the French, &c., the rise in popularity among the middle classes and the corresponding decline among the upper, the popularity and differences in America, and the final fall from grace. If there's one thing I'll say for it is that, compared to some of the other popular histories I've read (most recently, Barbara Holland Gentlemen's Blood — the less said, the better) it's written in a fairly calm and neutral tone. It's superficial perhaps, but there's certainly worse out there.
Overall, I enjoyed it well enough to say that it wasn't a waste of time, but not enough to say want to read it again.
The first is the story of David Landale, an ancestor of the author, who in 1826 took part in the last fatal duel in Scotland. It covers the events leading up to the duel itself, and through to the end of the subsequent trial. It's the better of the two sections, as it's more focused though it suffers from a few flaws. The first is that Landale's sources are perhaps of questionable bias -- his primary is a record of the trial compiled by one of the counsel for the defence. When combined with his own obvious biases, the rather one-sided nature of the narrative becomes apparent. Which isn't to say that it might not be true as told, and it's unlikely that any other version will emerge given the paucity of other first-hand documentation. The second is that occasionally his prose is perhaps a little overwrought. Case in point:
"With the fatal shot still ringing in their ears, David Landale and William Millie sat back in the chaise and ordered John Mason to drive them as fast as possible from the sodden field in Fife where George Morgan's body was slowly growing as cold and damp as the earth beneath him. They were now on the run."(He also states near the beginning that he's tried to avoid giving thoughts or words to people without documentation to back it up. How well he succeeds is perhaps debatable — though there is a bibliography no citations are given for quotations themselves, and there are occasions where we're told how someone felt without any backing being given. It's an admirable attempt, at least.)
The second narrative is a general history of dueling itself. It's not as interesting as the main narrative, perhaps partly because there is less personal investment but also largely because there's nothing to differentiate it from any of the other popular histories of dueling. Due to the fact that it's not the primary nature of the book, it's shallower than many, but it still manages to touch on the same themes and examples as you'd see anywhere else: medieval trial by combat, jousts (though he does make certain to note that there is no direct connection between those and dueling), the rise in popularity in early modern Europe, the formalization of the code duello, Pushkin, Hamilton/Burr, Wellington, the Irish, the French, &c., the rise in popularity among the middle classes and the corresponding decline among the upper, the popularity and differences in America, and the final fall from grace. If there's one thing I'll say for it is that, compared to some of the other popular histories I've read (most recently, Barbara Holland Gentlemen's Blood — the less said, the better) it's written in a fairly calm and neutral tone. It's superficial perhaps, but there's certainly worse out there.
Overall, I enjoyed it well enough to say that it wasn't a waste of time, but not enough to say want to read it again.
July 9, 2010
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of what I call "NPR-worthy" nonfiction books, or in other words a book which contains all the precise research and fact-checking of an academic paper, but written in a narrative style engaging enough to score them an interview on NPR; but there's also a big problem with the growing popularity of NPR-worthy books, which is that in their haste to assemble a 300-page manuscript that can be sold as a typical $25 hardback, a lot of these books will end up containing only about a magazine article's worth of actual interesting content, the other 250 pages padded with ancillary information about those times in general that don't really have anything to do with the subject at hand. Take for example James Landale's The Last Duel, which features a legitimately fascinating event at its core -- the very last publicly recorded formal pistol duel in Scotland, that is, taking place in 1826 just as the emerging Romantic Age was to profoundly redefine the meaning of the word "gentleman," giving Landale the perfect excuse to examine not only this particular event but also the history of dueling in general, from its start in jousting matches among knights in the Middle Ages to its death during the Victorian Age of the 19th century, and of how related issues like greater rule of law, a better-working justice system, more sophisticated weapons, and an overall rise in sanctity for human life eventually did away with the millennium-old tradition for good.
But unfortunately, even all this is only enough to fill about a third of a book, so Landale has to search long and hard for even tangentially related information to fill the rest -- there is an entire chapter, for example, just on the history of the city of Kirkcaldy where the duel took place, and an entire other chapter just on the history of the mercantile industry, a financial dispute within which is what brought about the duel, and an entire other chapter just on the history of the Napoleonic Wars, which is what bankrupted Britain in the 1820s and led to the financial dispute to begin with. That's an awful long distance to travel from one's main subject, and is not the issue I wanted to read about when I picked up the book in the first place, which is why The Last Duel gets an only tepid recommendation from me today, a book worth reading for those interested in the history of dueling but that one will have to do a lot of hunting and pecking with to find the good bits.
Out of 10: 7.0
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of what I call "NPR-worthy" nonfiction books, or in other words a book which contains all the precise research and fact-checking of an academic paper, but written in a narrative style engaging enough to score them an interview on NPR; but there's also a big problem with the growing popularity of NPR-worthy books, which is that in their haste to assemble a 300-page manuscript that can be sold as a typical $25 hardback, a lot of these books will end up containing only about a magazine article's worth of actual interesting content, the other 250 pages padded with ancillary information about those times in general that don't really have anything to do with the subject at hand. Take for example James Landale's The Last Duel, which features a legitimately fascinating event at its core -- the very last publicly recorded formal pistol duel in Scotland, that is, taking place in 1826 just as the emerging Romantic Age was to profoundly redefine the meaning of the word "gentleman," giving Landale the perfect excuse to examine not only this particular event but also the history of dueling in general, from its start in jousting matches among knights in the Middle Ages to its death during the Victorian Age of the 19th century, and of how related issues like greater rule of law, a better-working justice system, more sophisticated weapons, and an overall rise in sanctity for human life eventually did away with the millennium-old tradition for good.
But unfortunately, even all this is only enough to fill about a third of a book, so Landale has to search long and hard for even tangentially related information to fill the rest -- there is an entire chapter, for example, just on the history of the city of Kirkcaldy where the duel took place, and an entire other chapter just on the history of the mercantile industry, a financial dispute within which is what brought about the duel, and an entire other chapter just on the history of the Napoleonic Wars, which is what bankrupted Britain in the 1820s and led to the financial dispute to begin with. That's an awful long distance to travel from one's main subject, and is not the issue I wanted to read about when I picked up the book in the first place, which is why The Last Duel gets an only tepid recommendation from me today, a book worth reading for those interested in the history of dueling but that one will have to do a lot of hunting and pecking with to find the good bits.
Out of 10: 7.0
February 9, 2018
This is one of my top five favourite books, very readable and (unlike many books written about periods in history) not padded out with pages of waffle, guess-work and bluster.
Duelling is a very interesting subject and not one I knew much about before picking this book up. My guilty confession was that I bought this book in Waterstones because I liked the front cover. I am so glad I did!
The book goes into plenty of detail on the subject of dueling in general but never falls into the trap of being boring or saturating the reader in unnecessary information. The book also tells the real story of the authors great-grandfather who actually fought in a duel himself and survived to tell the tale.
Although there is a tragic element to the subject there is also a good amount of humour. The book effectively highlights the point that young men of that period would kill and be killed for the most ridiculous of reasons (one duel was fought because one man at dinner remarked to another that he smelt!)
A triumph of a book and one that will always be on my bookshelf
Strangely enough the title of the book has been changed for US bookstores. In the UK this book is simple titled 'Duel'
Duelling is a very interesting subject and not one I knew much about before picking this book up. My guilty confession was that I bought this book in Waterstones because I liked the front cover. I am so glad I did!
The book goes into plenty of detail on the subject of dueling in general but never falls into the trap of being boring or saturating the reader in unnecessary information. The book also tells the real story of the authors great-grandfather who actually fought in a duel himself and survived to tell the tale.
Although there is a tragic element to the subject there is also a good amount of humour. The book effectively highlights the point that young men of that period would kill and be killed for the most ridiculous of reasons (one duel was fought because one man at dinner remarked to another that he smelt!)
A triumph of a book and one that will always be on my bookshelf
Strangely enough the title of the book has been changed for US bookstores. In the UK this book is simple titled 'Duel'
July 25, 2011
Apart from being a detailed account of the last duel ever fought in Scotland, the book is also something of an historical and sociological overview of the practice of duelling in general. Several interesting anecdotes emerge in the telling, including an extremely interesting one about co-framer of the American constitution, Alexander Hamilton, whose face adorns the ten dollar bill to this day. It's a fascinating book which is something of extension to Joseph Conrad's short story, "The Duel," and Ridley Scott's film "The Duellists," (one of this writer's favourite films) both of which are mentioned in the text. An absorbing historical read. - BH.
January 16, 2016
A so so book, though it does get more interesting after its slow start.
The author weaves the history of dueling, especially the kind with guns, with the tale of the final duel in Scotland, which so happens to have involved a relative of the author, in the 1820s.
The author does include many references to primary source texts about dueling which lay out the complex, ever evolving "code duelo", which includes how many paces apart you should be, what constitutes an honorable duel, the role of the "seconds", and even how official surgeons should participate.
The author weaves the history of dueling, especially the kind with guns, with the tale of the final duel in Scotland, which so happens to have involved a relative of the author, in the 1820s.
The author does include many references to primary source texts about dueling which lay out the complex, ever evolving "code duelo", which includes how many paces apart you should be, what constitutes an honorable duel, the role of the "seconds", and even how official surgeons should participate.
December 5, 2012
Well-written and addresses the history of dueling as a custom quite well. I also liked the description of the story of this individual duel. Great mix of personal family history and historical analysis.
December 14, 2009
Excellent. Great writing. Interesting story. Well done.
September 5, 2010
Interesting topic - a little too cut and dry .
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews