A Tale of Two Centuries: Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"

Abstract

Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924) is called by some the most popular short story ever written in English, and given its ubiquitous anthologizing, they are probably correct. This masterfully paced adventure tale is commonly dismissed by most "serious" readers as mere escapism, a prose comic book with nothing subtextual to its theme of a big game hunter who suddenly becomes the hunted. However, there is a deeper meaning to Connell's rousing tale of an American protagonist who must fight for his life against an aging Russian aristocrat while trapped on a Caribbean island where Darwinism rules.