DDC/MDS
| 823.912 |
Publication
New York : Bantam books, 1945 (1939).
Original publication date
1939
Description
Rogue Male is one of the classic thrillers of the 20th century. An Englishman plans to assassinate the dictator of a European country. But he is foiled at the last moment and falls into the hands of ruthless and inventive torturers. They devise for him an ingenious and diplomatic death but, for once, they bungle the job and he escapes. But England provides no safety from his pursuers - and the Rogue Male must strip away all the trappings of status and civilization as the hunter becomes a hunted animal.
Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
User reviews
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
At the start of WWII, an English sportsman crosses over from Poland and gets very close to assassinating an European dictator. Even though at that point the nationality of that dictator is unknown, the following events leave only Germany as a possibility (Russia is to away for the trip home with
But behind the hunt (which is executed very well - both in the enemy territory and in England) there is another story - the story of a shattered love, the story of what the main protagonist was not ready to admit even to himself, the story of what he was doing at that forest with a gun. It's a complex tale - with a thriller at the top, masking the psychological novel under it.
If someone expects high speed chase with cars and trains and whatsnot around Europe, they will remain disappointed. Most of the story is stationary; the only movement is to get everyone in position before the real game begins. And throughout most of the story, there is an easy way out - a way that the unnamed protagonist does not want to take. Because his life is not the most important thing in the world.
The protagonist narrates the story - the book is his diary. That centers the view that we can see and leave a lot of actions unseen until they start influencing the protagonist. And it is the diary's writer choice to remain unnamed - even if his name will probably save him, it is not how that game is played. At the end of the novel is somewhat open-ended - if it was written nowadays, I would expect the second novel within a year. But the story is told, it is just that there is the possibility for something else happening later (and when it was written, it was really open-ended - with the war still going and the dictator still alive).
It is a marvelous little novel - part thriller (imagine a current action movie chase minus the cars), part spy novel (because there is no other explanation for some of the protagonist action), part psychological suspense story that will become so popular in the decades since the writing of the novel. I will definitely check some other books from the Household.
Edition notes: I read this novel in the edition published by Folio Society in 2013. Rooney's choice to illustrate the book in black and white fits the mood of the novel. The page and a half illustrations are showing the vastness of the landscape (each of the full page illustrations have a small part on the facing page, needed to close the picture and provide the detail that make the picture part of the novel. I am not very good with art - but in that book, the art complimented the story without repeating it (while at the same time still showing pictures from the novel itself).
Show More
the ship. Technically speaking he claims that he was just trying to see if he can get close enough, just as a sportsman - but a man with an optical gun pointed to the head of a country will never believed when he says so. And when he is caught, he is tortured and left for dead (in a pretty inventive way) but he beats all odds and survives. And at this point the novel opens. It takes very little time for the secret services in the country to realize what happened and to start the hunt. But behind the hunt (which is executed very well - both in the enemy territory and in England) there is another story - the story of a shattered love, the story of what the main protagonist was not ready to admit even to himself, the story of what he was doing at that forest with a gun. It's a complex tale - with a thriller at the top, masking the psychological novel under it.
If someone expects high speed chase with cars and trains and whatsnot around Europe, they will remain disappointed. Most of the story is stationary; the only movement is to get everyone in position before the real game begins. And throughout most of the story, there is an easy way out - a way that the unnamed protagonist does not want to take. Because his life is not the most important thing in the world.
The protagonist narrates the story - the book is his diary. That centers the view that we can see and leave a lot of actions unseen until they start influencing the protagonist. And it is the diary's writer choice to remain unnamed - even if his name will probably save him, it is not how that game is played. At the end of the novel is somewhat open-ended - if it was written nowadays, I would expect the second novel within a year. But the story is told, it is just that there is the possibility for something else happening later (and when it was written, it was really open-ended - with the war still going and the dictator still alive).
It is a marvelous little novel - part thriller (imagine a current action movie chase minus the cars), part spy novel (because there is no other explanation for some of the protagonist action), part psychological suspense story that will become so popular in the decades since the writing of the novel. I will definitely check some other books from the Household.
Edition notes: I read this novel in the edition published by Folio Society in 2013. Rooney's choice to illustrate the book in black and white fits the mood of the novel. The page and a half illustrations are showing the vastness of the landscape (each of the full page illustrations have a small part on the facing page, needed to close the picture and provide the detail that make the picture part of the novel. I am not very good with art - but in that book, the art complimented the story without repeating it (while at the same time still showing pictures from the novel itself).
Show Less
LibraryThing member clfisha
The hunter becomes the hunted in this psychological, English classic tale of 30s.
A unnamed English gentlemen gets caught 'hunting' a powerful European dictator, his protestations that is was purely a sporting exercise is ignored as he is tortured and then pushed of a cliff. Murder attempt bodged he
Understated though it may be it’s as fascinating as it is tense, the idealist discussion never overwhelm the drama and the ending is one of the most excruciatingly claustrophobic tales I have ever read. Oddly to its 1930s setting works in its favour as does its deeply, overtly masculine tale (no women allowed here). The characters are a dying breed of English upper class gent, the world is changing and he knows it. Not only does a doomed foreshadowing falls across the plot but it enforces a more believable character.
A well deserved classic tag, inspiring many tales in genre (oddly including Rambo). I haven’t read anything quite like this before and I recommend it to all fans of thrillers and hidden anglophiles.
A unnamed English gentlemen gets caught 'hunting' a powerful European dictator, his protestations that is was purely a sporting exercise is ignored as he is tortured and then pushed of a cliff. Murder attempt bodged he
Show More
goes on run, dragging his broken body through Europe and fleeing for rural England where he goes to ground like a wounded animal. Wanted by the sinister foreign forces and UK police (for murder of aforementioned spies) we get not only a detailed look of the how but also the mentality, of the hunted man. Understated though it may be it’s as fascinating as it is tense, the idealist discussion never overwhelm the drama and the ending is one of the most excruciatingly claustrophobic tales I have ever read. Oddly to its 1930s setting works in its favour as does its deeply, overtly masculine tale (no women allowed here). The characters are a dying breed of English upper class gent, the world is changing and he knows it. Not only does a doomed foreshadowing falls across the plot but it enforces a more believable character.
A well deserved classic tag, inspiring many tales in genre (oddly including Rambo). I haven’t read anything quite like this before and I recommend it to all fans of thrillers and hidden anglophiles.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household is a incredible adventure story. A professional hunter slips into an unnamed country, stalks and aims at it’s dictator leader. He is caught, tortured, and thrown off a cliff but survives and manages to make his way back to England only to find he isn’t in the
What makes this book different from a straight adventure story is the reflections of the main character. With a lot of time on his hands and with paper to write, he keeps a journal and records his thoughts and philosophies. It seems as if this is all that keeps him human as he is living like an animal and using animal-like skills to engage in a battle of wits with his stalker. As the story unfolds the reason he hunted the dictator is revealed to have been a private act of revenge rather than a patriotic strike for freedom.
I had some prior knowledge of this book from the 1941 movie called Man Hunt. This movie was based on Rogue Male but other than the opening sequence was very different. In the novel, it is clear that the unnamed country is Germany and the dictator is Hitler even though this is never put in black and white. The movie, filmed during the war, glorified this attempt on Hitler’s life and patriotism was front and center.
For me, Rogue Male was an excellent read. The author manages to tell a story of depth without over writing. It is simply told, concise and vivid. I thoroughly enjoyed this taunt, tense thriller.
Show More
clear yet as agents of this unknown country are on his trail. The book is a first class survival story, as the protagonist now goes into hiding in rural Dorset, living in an expanded rabbit’s burrow with a feral cat as company. What makes this book different from a straight adventure story is the reflections of the main character. With a lot of time on his hands and with paper to write, he keeps a journal and records his thoughts and philosophies. It seems as if this is all that keeps him human as he is living like an animal and using animal-like skills to engage in a battle of wits with his stalker. As the story unfolds the reason he hunted the dictator is revealed to have been a private act of revenge rather than a patriotic strike for freedom.
I had some prior knowledge of this book from the 1941 movie called Man Hunt. This movie was based on Rogue Male but other than the opening sequence was very different. In the novel, it is clear that the unnamed country is Germany and the dictator is Hitler even though this is never put in black and white. The movie, filmed during the war, glorified this attempt on Hitler’s life and patriotism was front and center.
For me, Rogue Male was an excellent read. The author manages to tell a story of depth without over writing. It is simply told, concise and vivid. I thoroughly enjoyed this taunt, tense thriller.
Show Less
LibraryThing member datrappert
Intense story of a sportsman who has to go on the run after narrowly escaping death at the hands of a foreign power who believes he was attempting to assassinate their leader (never named, but as this book was published in 1939, Hitler is the obvious real-life parallel.) This is a claustrophobic
Show More
first-person story where the narrator's only trusted friend is a cat, and he holes up in a grave-like burrow for weeks on end. While there is considerable action, the story is told at a slow, highly detailed pace. What makes the book so fascinating, besides the extremely literate prose of author Household, is the self-discovery the protagonist makes during the course of the novel. While outwardly a tale of suspense, this is even more a psychological study of a man awakening to a new (truer?) knowledge of his own identity. Show Less
LibraryThing member edgeworth
This is another book I read after plucking it from the Classics list of the New York Review of Books, and while I was reasonably entertained, I can't say it held up to the high standards of Inverted World.
Written and set in 1938, Rogue Male begins with a famous English sportsman recounting his
What I found most odd about this book was that the narrator decides against turning himself over to the British government, suspecting that they will simply extradite him to maintain good diplomatic relations with Germany. While this is true (appeasement and all that), it seems quite bizarre from a modern perspective. It would have seemed bizarre to readers even a few years after the book's publication.
In any case, I found Rogue Male to be a fairly quick read, a standard thriller with a good bit of dry wit sprinkled throughout. I saw nothing of the "lip-chewing tension" that other reviews harp on about, but neither was I bored by it.
Written and set in 1938, Rogue Male begins with a famous English sportsman recounting his
Show More
attempt to assassinate a European dictator. The book goes to great lengths to avoid stating precisely who the dictator is and which country he rules over, but if you read between the lines and carefully follow the implications, you can deduce that it is probably HITLER. ADOLF HITLER. IN GERMANY. The hunter, one of those unnamed stiff upper-lip narrators in the grand tradition of 20th century British literature, maintains that he wasn't going to pull the trigger - that he was simply seeing if it was possible. The German agents who come across him in the act aren't convinced of this even after an extended torture session, and so they eventually try to kill him by throwing him off a cliff to make it look like an accident. He survives, however, and manages to evade pursuit. After successfully returning to England, he realises that national borders are of no interest to his pursuers, and the hunt continues.What I found most odd about this book was that the narrator decides against turning himself over to the British government, suspecting that they will simply extradite him to maintain good diplomatic relations with Germany. While this is true (appeasement and all that), it seems quite bizarre from a modern perspective. It would have seemed bizarre to readers even a few years after the book's publication.
In any case, I found Rogue Male to be a fairly quick read, a standard thriller with a good bit of dry wit sprinkled throughout. I saw nothing of the "lip-chewing tension" that other reviews harp on about, but neither was I bored by it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CarltonC
A good thriller, which rather like John Buchan’s novels (John Macnab as well as Hannay stories) I also enjoyed as it provides an insight into attitudes in England (not Britain, as Buchan) in 1939. Published in May 1939 before the outbreak of WWII, the object of the initial assassination attempt
The novel now conjours up that period of time in England when another European war seemed likely, and conflict in the Spanish Civil War is referenced, but war was not yet certain.
Some of the writing is very much of its time, with which some may be uncomfortable, such as:
She was a sturdy wench in corduroy shorts no longer than bum-bags, and with legs so red that the golden hairs showed as continuous fur. Not my taste at all. But my taste is far from eugenic.
Show More
is not named, but is obvious.The novel now conjours up that period of time in England when another European war seemed likely, and conflict in the Spanish Civil War is referenced, but war was not yet certain.
Some of the writing is very much of its time, with which some may be uncomfortable, such as:
She was a sturdy wench in corduroy shorts no longer than bum-bags, and with legs so red that the golden hairs showed as continuous fur. Not my taste at all. But my taste is far from eugenic.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Chatterbox
I had heard of this first when I ran across the 1976 or so movie with Peter O'Toole on late-night TV -- and found it so chilling that I had to turn it off. And then I never knew what had happened! Then caught the 1942 version of it ("Man Hunt"), which was a good noirish movie, although
This isn't a great, classic suspense novel, and I wouldn't have thought it warranted an NYRB seal of approval, but it's a brisk and entertaining read that sometimes requires the reader to suspense incredulity and remind him/herself that this was the 1930s, when the narrator might reasonably not want to have taken what appear today to be the logical steps to protect himself by going public. The final third of the book contains some intriguing twists, as the narrator admits some things to us for the first time -- and realizes some things about himself, his motivations and his next steps. That added some nuance which I don't recall being part of the more straightforward movie versions. 3.8 stars, recommended.
Show More
(understandably) propagandistic, since it was filmed during the war. Household's book was first published in 1939, and it's a first-person chronicle by an unnamed narrator of what he describes as a "sporting stalk" of a famous dictator personage in a country adjacent to Poland. Well, a bit of a no-brainer to figure out who that might have been in 1938/39... He's caught, tortured, and left for dead -- until the evildoers figure out that he survived and is making his way home. It's a great chase novel that turns into a game of wits as the narrator (a famous sportsman) turns to his hunting skills to protect himself from his pursuers and literally goes to ground in a burrow in Dorset. Even knowing the story, there were times when I found myself holding my breath. This isn't a great, classic suspense novel, and I wouldn't have thought it warranted an NYRB seal of approval, but it's a brisk and entertaining read that sometimes requires the reader to suspense incredulity and remind him/herself that this was the 1930s, when the narrator might reasonably not want to have taken what appear today to be the logical steps to protect himself by going public. The final third of the book contains some intriguing twists, as the narrator admits some things to us for the first time -- and realizes some things about himself, his motivations and his next steps. That added some nuance which I don't recall being part of the more straightforward movie versions. 3.8 stars, recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member shadow_
A great literate action story. The main character is so thoroughly disaffected and alienated from himself that his motivation, though powerful is initially a mystery both to us and to himself. Told in a deft oblique style that circles ever closer to plain statement of fact as the story grows in
Show More
intensity. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonfaith
The novel, as expected, is much more fleshy and reflective than the film. Even bereft of such, i would've enjoyed this one. Shades of Mr. Greene abound.
LibraryThing member MathMaverick
Excellent thriller! Reminded me a lot of The 39 Steps.
LibraryThing member lamour
This is one of the greatest chase stories that I have ever read. A hunter stumbles on to Hitler's lair in the forest somewhere in Germany. He lines up a shot on Hitler although he has no plans to actually shot him. However, he is discovered before he can get away and then the chase is on across
Show More
Europe to England. Show Less
LibraryThing member edella
Rogue Male is one of the classic thrillers of the 20th century. An Englishman plans to assassinate the dictator of a European country. But he is foiled at the last moment and falls into the hands of ruthless and inventive torturers. They devise for him an ingenious and diplomatic death but, for
Show More
once, they bungle the job and he escapes. But England provides no safety from his pursuers - and the Rogue Male must strip away all the trappings of status and civilization as the hunter becomes a hunted animal. Show Less
LibraryThing member caklr650
Very Pre War English. Meaning dry and somewhat tedious at times. The book is full of minute detail about the english countryside that seems to me at least to lose alot in the voyage over the pond. I certainly wouldn't rate it as one of the best thrillers of all time as others have done.
LibraryThing member maneekuhi
The Rogue Male was first published at the outbreak of WWII and was described as a spy novel. I can't imagine why. This is a novel about a man-hunt. There are no intelligence agencies, no moles, no dead drops, nor coded messages, Mata Hari's, poison pills. Yet in a poll recently conducted by the
Completed 11/3/11.
Show More
Guardian looking for the top ten spy novels of all time, a number of readers suggested "The Rogue Male". I suggest two stars. An English aristocrat, an excellent hunter, has Hitler in his rifle sites and just as he is about to pull the trigger.....Well, he is captured but quickly and rather easily escapes. He reaches England and for some reason I never did understand, he refuses to seek assistance from the police knowing full well that Hitler's guys will be tracking him down to the end of the earth. He eventually gets to the English countryside and in great detail describes the elaborate hidey hole he constructs for himself. But enough of the plot. At this point there was still more than a third of the novel left (actually the last third was pretty good) but it took too long to get there and I just wanted it to end.Completed 11/3/11.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Balnaves
‘Remains as exciting and probing as ever … the reason lies as much in its incisive psychology and timeless crispness of language as in its sensational plot’
The Times
Rogue Male opens, literally, with a cliffhanger. The narrator has just been thrown off the edge of a precipice and is clinging
In his introduction, Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville warns against reading Rogue Male on the train, ‘for you will surely end up missing your stop’. This is a tense thriller with echoes of John Buchan, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. First published in 1939, the story appears to be a prescient account of an attempt to assassinate Hitler – though the anonymous narrator does not consider himself an assassin but ‘a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.’
Born in 1900, Geoffrey Household had a varied career that encompassed working for a Romanian bank, marketing bananas in Spain, and serving with British Intelligence during the Second World War. Rogue Male was his most successful novel, adapted as a film in 1941 by Fritz Lang and more recently for radio and television. To illustrate our edition we have commissioned David Rooney, a leading Irish artist whose portfolio includes the Folio Plutarch’s Lives. Rooney employs a scraperboard technique to create bold monochrome images that perfectly convey the rapid economy of the story. In a nod to the cat-and-mouse theme, the artist has integrated his illustrations with the text, giving the effect of movement across the page. Together with Banville’s introduction, this is a fine new presentation of a gripping story.
‘One of the most vivid lone wolf stories I have read’
Conn Iggulden
The Times
Rogue Male opens, literally, with a cliffhanger. The narrator has just been thrown off the edge of a precipice and is clinging
Show More
on by the fingertips. He survives the fall and struggles through a muddy stream before climbing a tree, there to hide from the uniformed figures searching below. It transpires that he has just tried to assassinate the leader of an unnamed country with a hunting rifle. There follows a fast-paced cat-and-mouse chase across Europe as the hero struggles to evade the authorities and carry out his mission – ‘to do justice where no other hand could reach.’In his introduction, Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville warns against reading Rogue Male on the train, ‘for you will surely end up missing your stop’. This is a tense thriller with echoes of John Buchan, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. First published in 1939, the story appears to be a prescient account of an attempt to assassinate Hitler – though the anonymous narrator does not consider himself an assassin but ‘a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.’
Born in 1900, Geoffrey Household had a varied career that encompassed working for a Romanian bank, marketing bananas in Spain, and serving with British Intelligence during the Second World War. Rogue Male was his most successful novel, adapted as a film in 1941 by Fritz Lang and more recently for radio and television. To illustrate our edition we have commissioned David Rooney, a leading Irish artist whose portfolio includes the Folio Plutarch’s Lives. Rooney employs a scraperboard technique to create bold monochrome images that perfectly convey the rapid economy of the story. In a nod to the cat-and-mouse theme, the artist has integrated his illustrations with the text, giving the effect of movement across the page. Together with Banville’s introduction, this is a fine new presentation of a gripping story.
‘One of the most vivid lone wolf stories I have read’
Conn Iggulden
Show Less
LibraryThing member debs4jc
The main character is a big game hunter and he, apparently on a lark, decides to try and see if he can use his big game skills to get into a position where he can assasinate a world leader. (I won't say who as the book doesn't, but it is set just before World War II). Well he gets caught and gets
Show More
in big trouble and the entire story is pretty much the story of how he struggles to get away and then stay hidden from his enemies. It is a classic tale of survival against the odds so don't miss it if you like those kinds of stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member mstrust
The story begins with our unnamed narrator seemingly ready to assassinate the leader of an unnamed European country, but he's discovered, beaten and expected to die. He doesn't. Severely injured, he manages to escape the country even with every government agent on his tail. Once back in England,
Action-packed and suspenseful, and even though it was published in 1939 it retains a modern, and at times, frantic pace.
Show More
he's suspicious that he's still a wanted man, which proves to be true.Action-packed and suspenseful, and even though it was published in 1939 it retains a modern, and at times, frantic pace.
Show Less
LibraryThing member eliza.graham.180
I heard this years ago on BBC Radio 4 as a dramatisation and became hooked. At the time Rogue Male was out of press, and I had to wait until a friend started working at a secondhand bookshop and found me a copy. Something about the descriptions of a man hiding out in the deeply-banked lanes of
Show More
Dorset, living like a wild animal, reading the landscape for signs of human predators, and surviving on his wits, continues to grip me. Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
I started this book thinking that I already knew the basic plot from watching the film. I quickly realized that I had confused this with another story with a slightly similar premise of a man being hunted.
In this, the unnamed protagonist is both the hunter and the hunted. I was bothered for a while
Now that I have finished, I do vaguely recall seeing a film based on this (starring Fred McMurray I think). If I am remembering correctly, there were some pretty significant differences & the book is better. I will have to look for the film so I can refresh my memory.
In this, the unnamed protagonist is both the hunter and the hunted. I was bothered for a while
Show More
in the first section with this man's motivation for his "sporting stalk" of a leader of a foreign country but this is eventually explained in the final section.Now that I have finished, I do vaguely recall seeing a film based on this (starring Fred McMurray I think). If I am remembering correctly, there were some pretty significant differences & the book is better. I will have to look for the film so I can refresh my memory.
Show Less
LibraryThing member page.fault
Rogue Male is very strange. Something of a precursor to James Bond or the Bourne Identity and all that, and a solid member of early noir, the story features an unnamed protagonist who decides that hunting lions and other furry critters just isn't exciting any more, and that the next logical big
I couldn't warm to our rogue male, nor could I really sympathize with his goals. He eventually reveals that his reason for Dictator Hunting is in revenge for the death of his true love, but it takes a really long time--and a long slide from my ability to sympathize--before he admits this. The story is strangely propagandist (it's the late 1930s...guess who the dictator is?), yet (to me at least) completely devoid of introspection. I don't get it, and I just couldn't like The Male.
Show More
game is a totalitarian dictator. The story details his attempts to off said dictator, and, when the tables are turned, the henchmen of said dictator trying to off him.I couldn't warm to our rogue male, nor could I really sympathize with his goals. He eventually reveals that his reason for Dictator Hunting is in revenge for the death of his true love, but it takes a really long time--and a long slide from my ability to sympathize--before he admits this. The story is strangely propagandist (it's the late 1930s...guess who the dictator is?), yet (to me at least) completely devoid of introspection. I don't get it, and I just couldn't like The Male.
Show Less
LibraryThing member antiquary
This book is an acknowledged classic by an author I often enjoy, and i have owned it fr years, but i don;t think I have actually read it through. Ias many readers know better than I, it concerns a British gentleman and experienced hunter who decides to shoot a cruel dictator (by implication, Hitler
Show More
an implication made explicit on the cover of a more recent Penguin edition) who was responsible for the death of the woman the hunter loved.He fails, but ends the book setting off to try again. Show Less
LibraryThing member heggiep
A 145 page chase? That's what I thought I'd gotten myself into, part-way through the book. Essentially true but with enough interest, including the tricks played on the mind of a 'hunted' man, to have me racing to the end.
LibraryThing member ericlee
In 1939, British writer Geoffrey Household imagined how a lone sniper might attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at his Bavarian vacation home near Berchtesgaden. Two years later, anti-Nazi German director Fritz Lang -- now exiled to Hollywood -- filmed the story as 'Man Hunt'. And three years after
Household's book is a great story, far superior to John Buchan's thrillers like The 39 Steps. It follows what happens to the assassin, who is a big game hunter, after he is captured by the dictator's guards, tortured and then escapes back to England. One is reminded of Frederick Forsyth's 'Day of the Jackal' as this book too goes into minute detail about how one might kill a world leader and get away with it. Unlike the later films (and Operation Foxley, the secret SOE plan) in the book the assassin is not named, nor is his target. Household later confirmed in an interview that he intended it to be Hitler all along, but left open the possibility that it could have been Stalin too.
A great read.
Show More
that, officers in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) drafted a plan to kill Hitler, seemingly based on this story. Life does indeed imitate art.Household's book is a great story, far superior to John Buchan's thrillers like The 39 Steps. It follows what happens to the assassin, who is a big game hunter, after he is captured by the dictator's guards, tortured and then escapes back to England. One is reminded of Frederick Forsyth's 'Day of the Jackal' as this book too goes into minute detail about how one might kill a world leader and get away with it. Unlike the later films (and Operation Foxley, the secret SOE plan) in the book the assassin is not named, nor is his target. Household later confirmed in an interview that he intended it to be Hitler all along, but left open the possibility that it could have been Stalin too.
A great read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household begins where a more typical espionage thriller would end-- after the assassination attempt has failed. When the novel opens, the unnamed narrator has already been captured by his enemies, he has already undergone intense interrogation and has already escaped. He is
This makes Rogue Male a kind of procedural. But it's not a police procedural clearly, we are following the how-to story of someone operating outside the law. How the narrator bluffs his way onto a ship heading for England, how he finds the place to dig his hide-out, and the hide-out itself are fascinating reading. Along a nearly abandoned road in Wales, the narrator finds a brush covered spot where he can tunnel out a large warren, large enough to streach out when he lies down and to sit up straight when he sits up. He disguises the hideout so that it looks like a badger's home and basically locks himself in, planning to hide there until it is safe enough to leave the country.
So we know he was not working for England when he made the assasination attempt, but who was he working for and who was he trying to kill and, of course, why. This makes for an uneasy sort of dramatic tension in the novel. The reader naturally wants a narrator to succeed, and this narrator is a likable one, sympathetic since he is the victim of a brutal interrogation and was left for dead. Will his pursuers find him? Should we want them to? This tension makes the novel's 190 pages difficult to put down.
The cover of my edition, not the one pictured, links the author, Household, whom I'd not heard of before reading Rogue Male, with Eric Ambler, John le Carre and John Buchan. I'm in agreement here. Rogue Male was published in 1939 so it has much more in common with Eric Ambler and early John le Carre. Household can certainly hold his own in this company. I'm giving Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household four out of five stars. If you're looking for a good spy thriller this summer, look to Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.
Show More
on the run, trying to flee one country for another, looking for a place to hide. We do not know who he is, who he tried to kill, who he is working for or even if he is someone we should be siding with. What he tells us is how he escaped from his captors, how he got back to England and how he built what should have been the perfect hiding place. This makes Rogue Male a kind of procedural. But it's not a police procedural clearly, we are following the how-to story of someone operating outside the law. How the narrator bluffs his way onto a ship heading for England, how he finds the place to dig his hide-out, and the hide-out itself are fascinating reading. Along a nearly abandoned road in Wales, the narrator finds a brush covered spot where he can tunnel out a large warren, large enough to streach out when he lies down and to sit up straight when he sits up. He disguises the hideout so that it looks like a badger's home and basically locks himself in, planning to hide there until it is safe enough to leave the country.
So we know he was not working for England when he made the assasination attempt, but who was he working for and who was he trying to kill and, of course, why. This makes for an uneasy sort of dramatic tension in the novel. The reader naturally wants a narrator to succeed, and this narrator is a likable one, sympathetic since he is the victim of a brutal interrogation and was left for dead. Will his pursuers find him? Should we want them to? This tension makes the novel's 190 pages difficult to put down.
The cover of my edition, not the one pictured, links the author, Household, whom I'd not heard of before reading Rogue Male, with Eric Ambler, John le Carre and John Buchan. I'm in agreement here. Rogue Male was published in 1939 so it has much more in common with Eric Ambler and early John le Carre. Household can certainly hold his own in this company. I'm giving Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household four out of five stars. If you're looking for a good spy thriller this summer, look to Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.
Show Less
LibraryThing member burritapal
A psychological thriller, the story is of a deadly cat-and-mouse chase. To revenge the execution-style death of his love, a man plots to shoot from long range the leader who gave the order. He misses his chance and is captured, tortured, and thrown at the edge of a cliff so as to appear an
Show More
accident. Household's strongly-written character has the will and the cunning to escape, and survives through arduous, exhausting and dangerous conditions, because he is not done. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Physical description
187 p.; 16 cm
Local notes
!Pronzini-Muller 382 "*"