Excerpt from Le Duel: Piece En Trois Actes It is impossible as yet to assign any definite place in French literature to M. Henri Lavedan, for the excellent reason that he is still in the midst of an active literary career. He was born at Orleans in 1859, the son of a prominent journalist and administrator, who held im portant positions in both capacities. The works of the younger Lavedan show that he is a man brought up in the best principles of the class of the bourgeois, with all the advantages of that careful, traditional education which underlies the accomplishment of so many French men of letters. He gives evidence upon almost every page of knowing literature, not merely as books read, but as something upon which he can surely build. An English speaking person reading French books cannot fail to see how potent has been this intimate literary knowledge upon the part of so many of her writers, in keeping up the high standard of France. Henri Lavedan began his career as a journalist and story writer, but like so many others he soon turned to the drama, in which his best work has been done. His life has been devoted to a steady produc tion of tales, novels, dialogues, essays, and plays, amount ing at present to some thirty-seven volumes. Since 1898 he has been a member of the French Academy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.