Rogue Male -- Geoffrey Household (1939)

Hello readers, Bill here, taking (as I said I would) a break from The Big Book of Adventure Stories.  Finding it easier and more convenient to read on my Kindle while my girlfriend was asleep during this past weekend (not to mention less likely to wake her) then to pull out The Big Book, I took the time to read Geoffrey Household's classic novel Rogue Male, having downloaded it for my Kindle on the recommendation of Sai S over at Pulp Flakes.  It quickly proved to be worth far more than the pittance I paid for it on Amazon, but I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let's take a look at the book itself!

Our narrator, an unnamed British sportsman and big-game hunter of undefined social standing but circulating in the some of the highest of London's social circles, decides to take a trip into Central Europe, Poland and surrounding environs, for a little light hunting.  While there, he decides to take a detour into an unnamed country currently in the thrall of a totalitarian dictator (which is totally NOT Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, wink wink nudge nudge) for a little bit stronger a diversion; to see if it's possible to use his hunting skills to get close enough to the dictator to get him in his crosshairs.  He has no intention of shooting the dictator; just a little sporting stalk.

Immediately after centering his crosshairs over the dictator's chest, our narrator is found and beaten into submission by the dictator's bodyguards and secret police.  Finding his story that he was just pointing a gun at Hitler to see if he could a bit unbelievable, our narrator is tortured and the decision is made to throw him off a cliff and make his death look like an accident.

Surviving the fall but with one eye and both hands ruined, our narrator begins to slowly work his way to safety, pursued across Europe and even into the heart of England by the Gestapo.  Much like the fox fleeing the huntsman's hounds, our narrator is forced to go to ground quite literally, burrowing into the earth to hide from his pursuers.

Effectively buried alive, he contemplates the events that have brought him to this point, and realizes that ultimately he did intend to pull the trigger and end Hitler's life.  Emboldened by this revelation, he steels himself to fight back against his oppressors...

Rogue Male was exactly what I needed after an absolutely hellish week at work (that may be spilling over into this week as well).  The writing is light and airy, and easy on my tired brain after a long day at the office. This lightness is deceptive, however; the book is tightly plotted and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a hatchet.  The book absolutely grips the reader and holds them, spellbound, as the narrator's nerves are stretched to the breaking point and beyond.  Truth be told, the only thing that compelled me to put the book down at all was being too exhausted to focus my eyes on the words.  Were this a weekend where I'd had no other obligations, I think I would have sat down and read the entire thing on a Saturday afternoon.

Check out Rogue Male.  Seriously, it's just that good.

"The Most Dangerous Game" -- Richard Connell (COLLIER'S WEEKLY, January 19, 1924)

I was so excited to see this story come up next in The Big Book of Adventure Stories, readers.  I've seen at least six different film adaptations, ranging from the serious 1932 film, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong (and which was shot at night on the same sets Wray and Armstrong were on by day shooting KING KONG!) to the cheesy 1980s sci-fi bimbo-rama SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY starring Brinke Stevens, and which was once famously condemned on the Senate floor by Jesse Helms.  And of course, by 2013, the theme of a wealthy man hunting other men for sport has become almost cliche.  I was excited to see how the original short story held up compared to the various adaptations and takes on the theme I'd seen, and let me tell you, Richard Connell's prose did not disappoint.

Sanger Rainsford, a prominent big game hunter from New York, is sailing to Rio de Janeiro with his friend Whitney in order to hunt jaguars.  One dark night, the two men are sitting on deck and find themselves discussing the upcoming hunt, with Whitney pondering what the jaguars must think of it.  Rainsford scoffs at this line of thought, and Whitney retires to bed.  Rainsford stays on deck smoking his pipe, until startled by a trio of pistol shots echoing from nearby Ship-Trap Island, causing him to drop his pipe.  Fumbling for it in the dark, he falls overboard, and when he realizes he can't swim fast enough to catch back up to the ship, makes for Ship-Trap Island.

On the island, Rainsford is stunned to discover an elegant chateau, and soon learns that the island is home to a pair of Cossacks (an ethnic group that's strangely become a theme around here...) -- the aristocratic General Zaroff and his deaf-mute servant, Ivan.  Zaroff is a big game hunter as well, and in fact is a great admirer of Rainsford's books on hunting.

Over dinner, Zaroff explains to Rainsford how over many years, he's grown bored with hunting, and finds no thrill in hunting big game animals any more -- but has found a new prey, "the most dangerous game." On Ship-Trap Island, Zaroff lures ships aground and hunts the people he captures from these wrecks for sport.  He asks Rainsford to join him in a hunt, and when Rainsford, appalled, refuses, Zaroff decides to hunt him instead.

Given a few hours' head start, Rainsford must survive three days without being shot by Zaroff or torn to bits by either Ivan or Zaroff's pack of hunting dogs.  If, at the end of three days, Rainsford is still alive, Zaroff pledges to put him safely ashore on the mainland with no ill will.  It will take all of Rainsford's cunning and intellect to survive...

"The Most Dangerous Game" is a brilliant exercise in "less is more."  The story doesn't quite fill nine pages in The Big Book of Adventure Stories (ten including the introduction), but doesn't need more than that to tell itself.  The writing is as lean and wolfish as Zaroff himself, unfettered with purple prose.

This sparseness of story-telling may be a turn-off to modern readers; it's a tale of suspense and tension, not of violence and blood-letting, and I think if readers come in expecting a battle royale they'll be deeply disappointed.  The emphasis is on the fraying of Rainsford's nerves as he struggles to survive in the face of Zaroff, an almost supernaturally-talented hunter, and his efforts to maintain a strong enough control of himself to fight back.

In fact, so little emphasis in the story is on violence that the finally conflict between Zaroff and Rainsford doesn't even take place "on screen" as it were; the second-to-last paragraph ends with Zaroff accepting Rainsford's offer of a man-to-man fight, while the last paragraph, only a sentence long, describes Rainsford settling in to rest up and recuperate after his ordeal.  The fight is left entirely to the reader's imagination, which is a bold move that I don't think would fly today.