The Most Dangerous Game

Short Tastes - Your personal guide to the world of short stories

Writer: Richard Connell

Year of Publication: 1924

Genre: Adventure

Plot Summary:

Sanger Rainsford of New York City falls from his yacht into the sea in the middle of the night and swims to the nearest island, which is rumoured to be inhabited by something of a monstrous nature. Expecting savage cannibals on the island, Rainsford is surprised to find its owner a civilized General living in a mansion. The General is a self-proclaimed hunter and after travelling the world killing all kinds of animals, he has decided to take his profession one step further and hunt the most dangerous game in the world, an animal with reason – man. Thus starts an unbelievable chase with man both as predator and prey. Rainsford must now outwit his opponent in order to save his own life or have his head hung on the hunter’s display wall.

Comments:

An excellent story full of twists in its short length of 20 odd pages.

Excerpt:

"An apprehensive night crawled slowly by like a wounded snake and sleep did not visit Rainsford, although the silence of a dead world was on the jungle. Toward morning when a dingy gray was varnishing the sky, the cry of some startled bird focused Rainsford's attention in that direction. Something was coming through the bush, coming slowly, carefully, coming by the same winding way Rainsford had come. He flattened himself down on the limb and, through a screen of leaves almost as thick as tapestry, he watched. . . . That which was approaching was a man."

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Source of Image: http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/upload/public/docimages/Image/u/w/d/Frederick-Selous-rifle.jpg