The Most Dangerous Game

Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game," also known as "The Hounds of Zaroff," was first published on January 19, 1924, in Collier's. In the narrative, a big-game hunter from New York City drowns after falling from a boat and swims to what appears to be a deserted island in the Caribbean. There, a Russian aristocrat pursues him. The big-game hunting excursions in Africa and South America that were so popular with affluent Americans in the 1920s served as inspiration for the novel.