Widely anthologized, and the author's best-known work, "The Most Dangerous Game" features as its main character a big-game hunter from New York, who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean, and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is about a sardonic and ironic gothic inversion of the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.
At the start of the story, Sanger Rainsford is steaming south to Brazil to hunt jaguars in the Amazon with a fellow hunter named Whitney. Rainsford is presented as stereotypically heartless hunter, unconcerned about the life or feelings of his prey. As they pass through the Caribbean, Rainsford accidentally falls over the side of the yacht, but saves himself by swimming to the rocky shore of a mysterious island. Moving inland he discovers a large manor-house on a cliff. He knocks at the door and is welcomed by General Zaroff, a gentle and elegant man of noble Cossack heritage who apparently lives on the island alone with his powerful servant, a terrifying deaf-mute named Ivan. |
Rainsford must set out to survive his three days as a game animal with only a sack of food and a knife. The conclusion of the story focuses on what happens when these two skilled hunters finally match wits.
