ROGUE MALE [Hardcover]

GEOFFREY HOUSEHOLD (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus (1941)
• ASIN: B000JWS14G
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Escape and There Shall Be No Hiding Place!, June 10, 2001

By 

Asmodeous (North Yorkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rogue Male (Hardcover)

The ultimate 'chase' novel. Gripping, absorbing and incredibly realistic. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be chased and hunted down like a wounded animal then this is the book you should read. In my opinion it is considerably better than John Buchan's thriller The 39 Steps.

The nameless hero 'Rogue Male' is stripped of all identity and forced to flee from the clutches of Hitler's henchmen.He must leave the civilised world behind if he is to survive. His only ally being his finely-tuned subconscious,primitive instincts.

This book is definitely one of the classics - one which I have re-read at least 6 times and one which I look forward to reading again in the future.

Geoffrey Household's story is so believable that often you are left wondering - did this really happen?

The story is extremely well plotted and, if you are reading this book for the first time,you just can't tell what is going to happen next or how the hero will escape from countless near death experiences...

Some people may find the story a little slow by modern high-octane hollywood standards. For example, the hero is a reserved 'English Gentlemen' and the death count is minimal (but hence much more realistic). Others on the other hand think the 'old fashioned' style is one of the book's strengths.

Basically, if you want something faster paced then try John Buchan or the modern SAS hero Andy McNab. But if you want the daddy of thrillers and one of the most absorbing and intensely rewarding reading experiences of your life then read this near-perfect thriller!

Now!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Household at his most magical, December 28, 1999

By 

"alasdhair_c" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rogue Male (Hardcover)

This is Household's best book. But to truly understand it you have to rewind the decades back to a pre-War England when loyalty, honor, ones word as ones bond, all counted supreme. The protagonist is a Rogue Male, the self-sufficient loner who takes on the world and in this case Hitler and his secret service. It's the 39 Steps, it's Scouting for Boys, and you have to meet it on that level. While Dornford Yates is prissy, Household is visceral. Read the book and then see the Peter O'Toole made for TV movie. The escape from Germany, the tube murder, the flight to Dorset, the eventual showdown between the hero and smooth, smart, accomplished villain, will take your breath away. Read and re-read. Then read the follow-up he wrote 30 years later, Rogue Justice, which is truly a worthy sequel.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic thriller with a surprising real world premise, June 15, 2006

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rogue Male (Crime Masterworks S.) (Paperback)

Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male is a classic thriller. Household was a British writer, born 1900, who spent some time in the US "just in time for the Depression". He began writing in the US, then returned to England. This is his second novel, published in 1939. He spent the War as an Intelligence Officer in Rumania, then returned to a fairly successful career writing. Rogue Male remains his most famous novel, though Arabesque (made into a movie with Gregory Peck, as I recall) is also well known.

Rogue Male opens with the never named first person protagonist aiming a rifle with a telescopic sight from 550 yards at a certain Head of State. It's never made precisely clear who that is -- a country on one side or the other of Poland, which leaves two pretty evil candidates as of the late 30s. It's pretty likely that Hitler is the real target, but the book takes care never to reveal which of Hitler or Stalin was the target -- on purpose, I think.

The protagonist claims he had no intention of shooting -- he was just "stalking the most dangerous game" for the fun of it, to see if he could be successful. This doesn't play well with the local secret police, who torture him and leave him for dead. But he rather incredibly escapes, and makes his way down a river, soon pursued by his enemies. He stows away on a boat for England, but soon is again pursued. When he is forced to kill one of his pursuers, he becomes wanted for murder by the British police. He flees to the country, planning to literally hole up for the duration. But even his careful plans aren't quite enough -- some bad luck leads to the British police getting a lead, and though he can elude them, the bad guys are able to track him down.

It's pretty good stuff. Exciting, not too ridiculously implausible, and at least somewhat interested in exploring the moral basis of the protagonist's decisions. (Though there is plenty of guff, too, in particular lots of stuff about the wonderful ineffable qualities of the English Upper Class.) (Some of the book is the protagonist's own coming to terms with his real motives and intentions.) It helps of course that the protagonist's target is a real-life maximally evil sort -- even if we continue to disapprove of his assassination attempt, it's hard not to sympathize at some level. The book is also quite dryly funny on occasion. The ending is interesting in retrospect. The protagonist, having again escaped, decides his only recourse is to finish the assassination job. And there the book ends. But it was published in 1939. Then it was a very "open" ending. Now -- any time since 1945 really -- the ending has closed somewhat -- we can only conclude that the protagonist failed in his attempt and was presumable summarily executed. (Though I understand there was eventually a sequel.)