This temporal and generational struggle-a paradigm-shifting upheaval-is embodied subtly, artfully, in the two main characters in Connells little masterpiece of action and suspense. The recently ended nineteenth century was, in general, a time of Eurocentrism, of kings, queens, kaisers, and czars, of vast empires, duchies, and colonies, whereas the new century-the still fledgling twentieth-is giving rise to democracies and self-made men, men who bow to no crowned heads, defer to no aristocratic classes, and eschew all limits to individual ambition. Rather, the tale offers a symbolic battle royal between two divergent centuries and the opposing worldviews and political constructs that dominated each respective era. For Connell's famed account of a stylized duel to the death between two Alpha males is, in its clever subtext, a symbolic struggle between far more than just a pair of determined men-a young hero and an aging villain-who are both experts at hunting, tracking, and, of course, killing.
It is dismissed as, at best, a wonderfully rendered prose comic book, nothing more.
And yet the original tale itself has always been viewed as merely a well-done action-adventure story, certainly an excellent piece of "escapist entertainment" (Welsh 134), to use one slight, but lacking any real depth, nuance, or higher purpose. Connell's ironic theme of the hunter who becomes the hunted has served as inspiration for a number of theatrical movies, both big budget and small, as well as countless television series episodes, everything from classic westerns ( Bonanza, Gunsmoke ) to science fiction ( Lost in Space, Star Trek ) and even comedies ( Gilligan's Island, The Simpsons ).
Hyde or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which continue to fascinate as the years go by" (1). Henry Memorial Award for short fiction that year, this masterfully paced tale about a thrilling chase through the tropical jungle is, according to Bryan Senn, author of The Most Dangerous Cinema, "one of those timeless classics, like Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr.
First published in Collier's Magazine in January 1924, "The Most Dangerous Game" is the only one of Richard Connells three hundred or so stories that is still in print today.
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