The secret history of the fiercely beautiful art of fencing. Though fencing is seen as a graceful and noble sport, it is not without its seamy sides. By The Sword traces the darkness behind the mask, from the sport's early brutal days to the more civilised, yet no less dangerous, days of duelling and then to the present day. Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx and Mussolini were all involved in duels, Hitler gave fencing a special emphasis in his regime and the best fencer the world has ever seen was an anti-Soviet spy. Cohen delves behind the headlines exposing lurid tales of cheating and blackmail, of murder and strange love affairs, the honour and dishonour of swordmanship and its cultural side from The Three Musketeers to Star Trek. Above all the book portrays the character of fencing - at once graceful, balletic, rough, technically beautiful and fiercely competitive.