Duel (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Matheson
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The 1960's or the early 1970's
- Setting: A highway to San Francisco, California
- Principal Characters: Mann, Keller
- Genres: Short fiction, Allegory, Suspense
- Subjects: Values, Love or romance, Emotions, Adultery, Separation, Debtors or creditors
- Locales: San Francisco, CA
The Story
“Duel” is based on a simple but provocative premise: What if an ordinary man, a salesperson, were driving along a highway minding his own business when a truck driver, for no discernible reason, suddenly challenged him to a duel of machines? The task the author poses for himself is to develop fully the potential of this premise, to dramatize its limited but exciting and suspenseful narrative possibilities.
Heading west on a two-lane highway through the mountains, Mann, a middle-aged traveling salesperson, sees very few vehicles. Because he must maintain his...
[The entire page is 1833 words long]
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