The Most Danderous Game By Richard Connel

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connel, was a riveting story about a sailor named Sangor Rainsford, who had washed up on the shore of a mysterious island after being thrown off his boat by a gaint wave! On this mysterious island he meets 2 men, General Zaroff and his Russian servant Ivan. After Zaroff feed and tends to Rainsfords every need, he implies that the next day he and his new found friend would hunt together in the forest that rests upon the island, after Rainsford asks what the island has to hunt, Zaroff tells him that he supplies his own hunt. At this point Rainsford begins to realize that Zaroff is implying that the hunt on the island is human life, therefor asking to leave the island immedaitely. After his request was denied Rainsford suddenly becomes the hunt. After Rainsford struggles to escape the keen eye of General Zaroff, Rainsford manages to kill Ivan and one of his prize hunting hounds. In a final attempt to escape death Rainsford finds himself jumping off a Cliff and into the rocky waters. Afterwards, thinking Rainsford is dead, Zaroff goes back to his house, eats his dinner, and prepares for bed however, as soon as he locked his bedroom door, he finds Rainsford standing right behind him! The two honourable men decide that only one can sleep in the master bed, while the other must be fed to the dogs. In a last statement Rainsford claims he had never slept in a better bed.

The author of 'The Most Dangerous Game,' Richard Connel began writing at an early age. While his dad was occupied with writing for the New York Times, Connel would wright stories of his own, earning 10 cents a story. This inspired him to wright for newspapers such as the Harvard Lampoon and The Harvard Crimson in his college years. After his college years he began to take on more serious jobs such as working for a newspaper in the city of new york, which ironically was the same paper who sued him for libel back when he worked for the Harvard Crimson! Connel later died of a heart-attack in his home at the age of 56.

The setting of the book 'The Most Dangerous Game,' Is taken in my opinion in the early 1900's seeing as the language there using, not full old English but very close. I also might think that because Rainsford and Whitney (Rainsford shipmate) are going out to hunt big-game like jaguars which is very illegal because of there endangerment, and to be honest I don't think that there would be too many jaguars in the 1960's due to poaching becoming more popular. It also might be from the early 1900's because in the story Rainsford and General Zaroff had a duel, which is an event that hasn't been popular for the last 100 years. The place in which this story took place is in an unpopular island which lost sailors tend to shipwreck on or wash up on shore. The atmosphere of this story is I find very uncomfortable. I believe this because when Rainsford gets to the island he is greeted with many nice things and gestures all to find out that such a kind man was actually insane and killing humans for his sown sport! This makes it uncomfortable because by knowing what hideous crimes this man is committing, your in his hospitality on a strange foreign island which you have no transportation or way of getting off of it!

I believe the main character, Sanagor Rainsford is a determined man because in the whole part of the novel where General Zaroff is out trying to kill him, he keeps telling himself to not loose his nerve no matter what the circumstance was, whether he had to stay up in a tree so the dogs wouldn't find him or create traps to try to outwit his opponent he kept his nerve the whole time. I also believe Rainsford is a very honourable man considering he excepted the challenge of the game and stayed true to the rules the whole time, after he won instead of trying to kill him from surprise he challenged him to a fair duel, which in my opinion shows true honour!

In my opinion I felt this book was a thrilling read which I would recommend to all! It had adventure, thrill, insanity, and surprise! Most definitely a book I could not put down. The only thing I found wrong with this book is it's ending, where Rainsford jumped into the water and swam away. I felt this could have been improved by Rainsford doing something heroic, sending General Zaroff and his dogs running back to his mansion in fear and agony, indeed that would have been a better ending! The Mad Max rating 9.5/10! Excellent story!