The Most Dangerous Game and Other Stories

by Richard Connell, Willa Cather, Henry James

At first glance, 'The Most Dangerous Game' by Richard Connell, 'Paul's Case' by Willa Cather, and 'The Beast in the Jungle' by Henry James have very little in common.

In 'The Most Dangerous Game' Sanger Rainsford, an accomplished big game hunter, is marooned on a remote island that is inhabited by another big game hunter, General Zaroff, who has found a very twisted way to add thrills to his hunting parties. In 'Paul's Case' a young man from Pittsburgh struggles with feelings of alienation from his middle-class surroundings. In 'The Beast in the Jungle' John Marcher lives his entire life waiting for a defining moment to happen.

But in each of these stories, the main character makes extreme choices under isolating circumstances. For Rainsford case, the isolation is external, imposed upon him by the insane General Zaroff. For Paul, the isolation comes from 'the shadowed corner, the dark place into which he dared not look, but from which something seemed always to be watching him.' For John Marcher, the isolation is 'the real truth' about himself, his undefined 'beast' that is liable to spring at any moment. Their choices make these must read stories.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Literature, Short Stories, Anthologies

Audiobook

First published July 13, 2011

About the author

Richard Edward Connell, Jr. was an American author and journalist, best known for his short story "The Most Dangerous Game." Connell was one of the best-known American short story writers of his time and his stories appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's Weekly. Connell had equal success as a journalist and screenwriter. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1942 for best original story for the film Meet John Doe.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over several times as a kid — at least my favorite stories from it. My paperback copy was old when I got it, and finally fell apart from multiple readings.

A couple of these tales are still well known — Richard Connell’s story of the hunter becoming the hunted, (The Most Dangerous Game) and Jack London’s To Build a Fire, his story of a man and his dog desperately trying to survive the frigid cold and snow of the Yukon being the most famous.

The less well remembered stories are just as heart-poundingly exciting. Leiningen vs the Ants is a man against nature tale, where a colonial rancher in Brazil uses his wits and stubbornness to protect his ranch against an elemental force — a voracious army of ants, ten miles long and two miles wide. (This was the only story from Carl Stephenson written in English.) Also, there is High Air, a dramatic tale of sand hogs (compressed air workers who dug tunnels under the river) desperately fighting to survive as their tunnel starts to collapse. Borden Chase, its author, was a sand hog himself before his writing career took off.

There are other stories in this fine collection, but these are the ones that have stayed with me for nearly half a century. Note that there is more than one collection going under the name of The Most Dangerous Game And Other Stories of Adventure, so, unless you have the edition I’m reviewing here (Berkley Publishing Corp. 1957) you may not find all these stories in the contents.

[Sebastiaan Wortelboer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinated by how much story Richard Connell told in so few pages.
To build a fire is probably my favorite story here, absolutely haunting. Caballero's way was very enjoyable, and so were the other stories, except for The man who would be king, which was very hard to follow and much too long.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this book at an area thrift store, I just couldn't resist the pulpy cover art, not to mention the fact that there were some great stories within. Some I had read before, like Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," but others were gems just waiting to be discovered: Twain's "Journalism in Tennessee" and Kruse's "Alone in Shark Waters," among others. Altogether an awesome collection (and who can resist that cover!).

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An assigned text for sixth grade, these stories are engrossing. I remember many of them vividly to this day. recommended for any who thinks fiction has gotten stale, or who is reluctant to read.

[Melissaw__ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Below I have rated each of the six short stories within this collection on the basis of my own unique likert scale lmao


- The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell: Four Successful Burmese Tiger Pits (4⭐️)

- To Build a Fire by Jack London: Three Frost-bitten Appendages (3⭐️)

- The Caballero’s Way by O. Henry: Two Very Vague Yeehaws (2⭐️)

- The Seed from the Sepulchre by Clark Ashton Smith: Gold of El Dorado (5⭐️)

- Alone in Shark Waters by John Kruse: Sunburnt and Delirious (2⭐️)

- The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling: A Blundering Dead King (1⭐️)

[Dude_read_a_book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic works spoiled by terrible narration

[Barbara Huskey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook. DNF. The first story was good but couldn't get into the next 2 and the narrator's voice was so annoyingly robotic and irritating that I couldn't make myself continue the last hour or so of the book.

[Amber Elby · Rating 5 out of 5]

My oldest daughter, who is a reluctant reader, read "The Most Dangerous Game" in one sitting. She could not put it down.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Most Dangerous Game" I first read in possibly the 6th grade in a Reading Class in school. It has remained one of my all time favorite short stories. Rainsford, a big game hunter is washed up on shore of an island known for causing shipwrecks and finds that another big game hunter, a Russian nobleman who has survived the Russian Revolution, has set up his own game reserve to hunt what he feels is the most challenging beast 0f all. 5 stars for the story although I did not care for the narrative or acting style of the narrator, William Coon.

"Paul's Case" by Willa Cather was an analysis of a very narcissistic and depressed young man, infatuated with the arts, and who feels that money is the key to happiness. It ends tragically. 3 Stars for this story.

Finally, "The Beast in the Jungle" by Henry James which observes a young man who wastes his life waiting for some incredible event to happen only to find out that it has been right in front of him the whole time. 3 Stars

[Genna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/2.5⭐️

I really love The Most Dangerous Game and have read it a few times now. So this time I wanted to listen to it on audiobook and this was my only option on the Libby app. I wish it was read by a better narrator. This narrator was very monotone and didn’t have any emotion behind his voice. But I still love the story so it didn’t bother me too much until he got to narrating the rest of the short stories. I was so uninterested. I might as well have just DNF’d the rest because I did not comprehend the rest of the short stories’ contents. They’ll be well forgotten.

[Galactic Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection of manly adventures. Dangerous Game started the manhunting for sport genre. It ends too abruptly but lots of movies to flesh it out. Build a Fire was nice and dark. O Henry was great. The Seed was Lovecraft in the jungle. Shark Waters was cool and to the point. But The Man Who Would be King has to be the highlight here, and I barely understood it. Some kind of fever dream about freemasons taking over Afghanistan -- amazing.

[Scott Delgado · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first two stories. I had read The Most Dangerous Game when in high school. Paul's Case was new to me, but I enjoyed its significance. The last story felt a bit long and drawn out to me and not very interesting, though.

[Matt Renstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3.0 Stars

2 Stars:
- Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

3 Stars:
- Leiningen Versus the Ants
- Journalism in Tennessee
- Alone in Shark Waters
- Locomotive 38, the Ojibway
- High Air

4 Stars:
- The Most Dangerous Game
- To Build a Fire

[Shawna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reading only had three of the stories in, and while they were interesting, they are not the most engrossing stories. The narrator was also pretty rough, having no emotion or apparent enthusiasm.

[Tom McCleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once heard the title story read on the radio. I bought this book with an accompanying collection of exciting stories and have read it to my kids. Highly recommended.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read:

The Most Dangerous Game. July 22. 3/5.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Most Dangerous Game is the best of this collection. The others were...meh or perhaps just above me.

[Darby Shumway · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating is for The Most Dangeous Game. The other stories did not hold my interest.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some were good, some just meh.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories I liked, some were ok.

I think my favorite thing about reading this was the story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson. I had never read it before, but it was very familiar and immediately reminded me of MacGyver (I remembered seeing a MacGyver episode of this story). So my favorite thing wasn't the story itself, but the MacGyver connection.

[Laryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this old book of short stories. I read it once a year to remind myself what it is like to be 12 years old again.

[Kagan Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some exciting moments. I don't recall specific details but I remember enjoying reading this book.