Geoffrey Household (1900–1988)
Author of Rogue Male
About the Author
Series
Works by Geoffrey Household
Catholic Family Book Club - St. Francis of Assisi, Nor Scrip Nor Shoes, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar, Brother Petroc's Return (1960) — Contributor — 3 copies
The Lost Continent [Short story] 2 copies
Keep Walking [Short Story] 1 copy
Children's Crusade 1 copy
Fantasy And Science Fiction 1 copy
ESPANJAN LUOLA 1 copy
Ihmismetsästys 1 copy
Associated Works
The Saturday Evening Post Reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1963) — Contributor — 104 copies, 1 review
Reader's Digest Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense, 1977, Volume 1 (1977) — Author — 31 copies, 1 review
The Saturday Evening Post Stories 1957 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Household, Geoffrey
- Legal name
- Household, Geoffrey Edward West
- Other names
- Hilcot, David
- Birthdate
- 1900-11-30
- Date of death
- 1988-10-04
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Clifton College
University of Oxford (BA|1922 - Magdalen College) - Occupations
- spy
novelist
short story writer
importer (fruit)
salesman - Agent
- Bill Hamilton (AM Heath)
- Short biography
- After graduation from Oxford, Geoffrey Household went to Spain, where he worked for the United Fruit Company. He moved to the USA in 1929 and wrote children's encyclopedias and radio plays. He also worked as a traveling salesman. During World War II, he served in British Intelligence in several European countries. After the war ended, he concentrated on his writing and produced numerous novels, short stories, and an autobiography. He's best remembered today for his thriller Rogue Male (1939).
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Bristol, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Bucharest, Romania
Spain
Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK - Place of death
- Wardington, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Edition: Folio Society (2013), Hardcover, 172 pages.
Original publication date: 1939
From the FS site: "Rogue Male opens, literally, with a cliffhanger. The narrator has just been thrown off the edge of a precipice and is clinging 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 show more 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.’"
When we have that first vision of the unnamed narrator, he's been submitted to interrogation under brutal torture (the fingertips in question have had the nails removed) and conveniently left for dead. The novel is in the form of a memoir, which he writes while in hiding to try to make sense of events and also as a way to avoid giving way to insanity. Well he might make that effort too, because his solution to staying away from his pursuers is to literally burrow himself underground somewhere in Dorset, where he spends weeks and months in a hole in the ground not much larger than the size of a coffin; living off tins of food in his own filth and stench and unable to go aboveground or show himself anywhere as a wanted man. The narrative is completely gripping, and though we never find out the identity of the narrator, nor that of the leader he may or may not have had the intention of assassinating, we are privy to his musings as he takes us through the course of events which has led him to his present situation, and his reflections on what his true motivations might have been.
Other than a ripping good yarn, one thing that greatly appealed to me about this short novel was that it allowed me to completely put aside my own sense of morality and prejudices and enter into the mind of a man with almost complete opposite background, world experience and choice pastimes. Here is a very wealthy man from an ancient aristocratic English family, educated in the best 'public' schools and then at an Oxbridge college, whose favourite activity is traveling the world to track and kill 'big game'—incidentally, according to wikipedia, the term 'Big Game' is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's Big Five game; lions, African elephants, Cape Buffaloes, leopards and rhinos—iin other words, animals now on the verge of extinction. I'm sure I don't need to point out that as an animal lover who eats meat most infrequently, I cannot abide the idea of hunting as a leisure activity. But Household's writing grabbed hold of me from the beginning, and I was immediately concerned with this man staying alive and living to tell his tale. And when his true motivations came to the fore, was even be able to sympathize with him. Also didn't hurt that according to some, the leader he had in his sights, finger on the trigger was no other than Hitler, "though the anonymous narrator does not consider himself an assassin but ‘a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.’"
Excellent and strongly recommended.
The Folio edition, needless to say, is simply gorgeous. The illustrations throughout always cross over the full spread, sometimes with the text wrapping around the element on the page facing the main picture, a great visual device for a book about a man on the run. show less
Original publication date: 1939
From the FS site: "Rogue Male opens, literally, with a cliffhanger. The narrator has just been thrown off the edge of a precipice and is clinging 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 show more 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.’"
When we have that first vision of the unnamed narrator, he's been submitted to interrogation under brutal torture (the fingertips in question have had the nails removed) and conveniently left for dead. The novel is in the form of a memoir, which he writes while in hiding to try to make sense of events and also as a way to avoid giving way to insanity. Well he might make that effort too, because his solution to staying away from his pursuers is to literally burrow himself underground somewhere in Dorset, where he spends weeks and months in a hole in the ground not much larger than the size of a coffin; living off tins of food in his own filth and stench and unable to go aboveground or show himself anywhere as a wanted man. The narrative is completely gripping, and though we never find out the identity of the narrator, nor that of the leader he may or may not have had the intention of assassinating, we are privy to his musings as he takes us through the course of events which has led him to his present situation, and his reflections on what his true motivations might have been.
Other than a ripping good yarn, one thing that greatly appealed to me about this short novel was that it allowed me to completely put aside my own sense of morality and prejudices and enter into the mind of a man with almost complete opposite background, world experience and choice pastimes. Here is a very wealthy man from an ancient aristocratic English family, educated in the best 'public' schools and then at an Oxbridge college, whose favourite activity is traveling the world to track and kill 'big game'—incidentally, according to wikipedia, the term 'Big Game' is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's Big Five game; lions, African elephants, Cape Buffaloes, leopards and rhinos—iin other words, animals now on the verge of extinction. I'm sure I don't need to point out that as an animal lover who eats meat most infrequently, I cannot abide the idea of hunting as a leisure activity. But Household's writing grabbed hold of me from the beginning, and I was immediately concerned with this man staying alive and living to tell his tale. And when his true motivations came to the fore, was even be able to sympathize with him. Also didn't hurt that according to some, the leader he had in his sights, finger on the trigger was no other than Hitler, "though the anonymous narrator does not consider himself an assassin but ‘a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.’"
Excellent and strongly recommended.
The Folio edition, needless to say, is simply gorgeous. The illustrations throughout always cross over the full spread, sometimes with the text wrapping around the element on the page facing the main picture, a great visual device for a book about a man on the run. show less
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 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 show more 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
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
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 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 show more 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
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 Dorset, living like a wild animal, reading the landscape for signs of human predators, and surviving on his wits, continues to grip me.
Lists
Folio Society (1)
1930s (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 51
- Also by
- 29
- Members
- 2,735
- Popularity
- #9,392
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 91
- ISBNs
- 181
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 3