It's a long way to go to get to the single relevent line, but it may be of modest interest ...
THE TIMES (London, UK) 22 October 05 Billiard balls at dawn . . . or shall we settle this matter of honour with blunderbusses? Since David met Goliath, the duel has exerted a special fascination (reviewed by Richard) {Excerpts}
DUEL by James Landale, Canongate, £14.99; 320pp, £13.49 (free p&p) 0870 1608080
www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
“Duels,” Flaubert noted in 1881, “no proof of courage. Great prestige of the man who has fought one.”
…
Since the days of David and Goliath this form of combat, fought according to an agreed code, has exerted a special fascination. As James Landale puts it in his new book, duelling “still grips our collective imagination”. It is an anachronism; ridiculous, barbaric, affording even at its most noble, only a rough form of justice. Yet in the present day, when claims are made on all sides that we should have control over our own lives — and deaths, too — one can be forgiven for hankering after this undeniably romantic way of solving affairs of honour.
…
There have been many odd encounters: in 1843, two men, having quarrelled over a game of billiards, fought by throwing billiard balls, the first to throw doing so with such force and accuracy that he killed his opponent with a single red. In 1894 two British officers in India duelled by placing themselves in a darkened room with a venomous snake.
…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1834928,00.html
or shall we settle this matter of honour with blunderbusses? Since David met Goliath, the duel has exerted a special fascination (reviewed by Richard) {Excerpts}
DUEL by James Landale, Canongate, £14.99; 320pp, £13.49 (free p&p) 0870 1608080
www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
…
Since the days of David and Goliath this form of combat, fought according to an agreed code, has exerted a special fascination. As James Landale puts it in his new book, duelling “still grips our collective imagination”. It is an anachronism; ridiculous, barbaric, affording even at its most noble, only a rough form of justice. Yet in the present day, when claims are made on all sides that we should have control over our own lives — and deaths, too — one can be forgiven for hankering after this undeniably romantic way of solving affairs of honour.
…
There have been many odd encounters: in 1843, two men, having quarrelled over a game of billiards, fought by throwing billiard balls, the first to throw doing so with such force and accuracy that he killed his opponent with a single red. In 1894 two British officers in India duelled by placing themselves in a darkened room with a venomous snake.
…
