I Read Stories: The Most Dangerous Game
 |
| Adventure fiction requires shirtless men |
Game in this case meaning the quarry in a hunt, so it’s not, I don’t know, Hungry Hungry Hippos with some eight year-olds on a sugar high.
Sanger Rainsford, a big game hunter on his way to the Amazon to hunt jaguars, falls off his ship in the Caribbean and washes up on the mysterious island home of notorious big game hunter General Zaroff, a Cossack formerly in the service of the Czar. Zaroff having hunted every animal that one can is bored; even Cape Buffalo* are not a challenge.
Obviously he’s taken to hunting men. But now, even that is turning to ennui; Zaroff is just TOO DAMN GOOD at killing, even with just a small calibre pistol. So he makes Rainsford become the quarry, threatening him with being beaten to death by his man servant Ivan, formerly the most feared wielder of the knout for the Great White Czar**.
A cat and mouse game ensues, hunter becomes hunted and &etc. 'The Most Dangerous Game' having entered English as a phrase, most of the story has been mined for ideas so none of it is much of a surprise to anyone who’s been reading adventure fiction of the last hundred years.
Still, there’s a certain raw simplicity here, a boiled down tension to the story. Perhaps better as an idea – certainly one that captured the imagination – it’s still worth reading. And it’s not long, and maintains its pace, barely slowing for the requisite philosophising about hunting.
Read This: For a quick look at a story that is referenced more than read, a key piece of adventure fiction
Don’t Read This: If two dudes trying to kill each other is not for you
Out of Copyright: Available to read for free
* The Cape or African Buffalo is considered extremely dangerous, wounded animals having been known to attack or ambush humans. They are unpredictable and tough, making them difficult to hunt.
** Great White Czar is a quote; the story uses Czar rather than the currently preferred Tsar.
Comments