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"The Most Dangerous Game" Background Information

A prolific writer in the first several decades of the twentieth century

Author: Richard Connell

Born October 17, 1893, in a New York state community near the Hudson River, not far from Theodore Roosevelt’s homestead

He spent a year at Georgetown College (now University) in Washington, D.C. while working as a secretary for his father, who was a member of Congress

Author: Richard Connell

When his father died in 1912, Connell moved back East to attend Harvard University.

While at Harvard, he exercised his interest in writing by serving as an editor for both the Daily Crimson and the Lampoon, a precursor to the popular National Lampoon satire magazine.

Author: Richard Connell Cont.

Author: Richard Connell Continued

In 1917, Connell enlisted in the United States Army during World War I and he fought on the front lines

His stories, more than 300 in all, were frequently published in such popular magazines as The Saturday Evening Post and Colliers.

Throughout his career, he variously wrote novels, plays, short stories, and screenplays for Hollywood movies

“The Most Dangerous Game" has remained popular since its initial publication. One of its strengths is its finely crafted action, which provides a type of suspense and adventure rare in short fiction

Most of Connell’s fiction was published in the 1920s and 1930s

Connell died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California, on November 22, 1949

Plot Introduction

The celebrated hunter Sanger Rainsford, while aboard a yacht cruising in the Caribbean, falls into the sea. While swimming desperately for shore, he hears the anguished cries of an animal being hunted; it is an animal he does not recognize. Rainsford makes it to land and after sleeping on the beach, he begins to look for people on the island. He finds evidence of the hunt he overheard and wonders, upon finding empty cartridges, why anyone would use a small gun to hunt what was, according to the evidence, obviously a large animal. Rainsford then follows the hunter’s footprints to the solitary house on the island.

Plot Introduction

Setting

South American Jungle

Setting

Ricahrd Connell provides an ominous setting typical of the Gothic genre. Horrible sounds and dismal sights fill the background of this story, and the details become more frightening and typical of both the horror and action-adventure genres as the story progresses.

Historical Context

"The Most Dangerous Game" was published in 1924. During this time...

The United States was firmly committed to Latin American politics and had a growing interest in Central America and the Caribbean

In Connell’s era, big-game hunting in South America was done mainly by outfitted safari.

Historical Context

The most desired species in big-game hunting were jaguar, puma, ocelot, red deer, and buffalo. The jaguar, the most powerful and most feared carnivore in South America, was a prized trophy.

Big game hunting in African and South American countries is popular with wealthy Europeans and Americans.

Historical Context Cont.

Historical Context Cont.

The Soviet Union, led by Vladimir Lenin, was established in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Private ownership of property and Christianity are banned, and the Cossacks—military forces loyal to the Tzar—are killed or deported. Economic conditions, however, fail to improve on a wide scale.

One writer of the period, Kenneth Roberts, warned that unrestricted immigration would create “a hybrid race of people as worthless and futile as the good-for-nothing mongrels of Central America and Southeastern Europe.”

The attitude of anti-immigration was not uncommon among Connell’s American audience

Federal dictates began restricting the entrance of immigrants into America.

Americans, whose families had immigrated earlier, frequently launched attacks against immigrants who were perceived to be inundating the work force and lowering the American standard of living.

Congress set strict quotas for each European country, and the National Origins Act of 1924 reassigned quotas that gave privilege to British, German, and Scandinavian immigrants over Italians, Poles, and Slavs. The 1924 regulations completely restricted the immigration of Asians, Africans, and Hispanics.

Characters

General Zaroff

Sanger Rainsford

Characters

Ivan

General Zaroff

  • Distinguished by a “cultivated voice,” fine clothes, the “singularly handsome” features of an aristocrat—and an obsession for hunting

  • He lives like royalty with his servant Ivan, his hunting dogs, and his stock of prey

  • Zaroff’s refined manners, and poised and delicate speech contrast with his brutal passion

General Zaroff

Sanger Rainsford

  • An American hunter of world renown

  • Is immediately recognized by General Zaroff as the author of a book on hunting snow leopards in Tibet

  • While he shares both an interest in hunting with Zaroff, he believes Zaroff's sport to be brutal and Zaroff himself to be a murderer.

Sanger Rainsford

Ivan

  • The deaf and dumb assistant to General Zaroff

  • Extremely large and seems to enjoy torturing and murdering helpless captives.

  • Ivan, like Zaroff, is a Cossack—a Russian who served as a soldier to the Russian Czar in the early 1900s.

Ivan

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