In modern society the thought that someone would organize a deadly competition with a rival, risking his life over a point of honor, is incomprehensible. That this form of resolution would become an accepted "sport, " with noble gentlemen even possessing sets of special duelling pistols, seems insane. This fascinating history of the practice of duelling takes the reader into the intriguing world of pistols, "fields of honor, " and mortal combat, a world where complex rules governed a system of dispute which often ended in death.