Rogue Male (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Victoria Nelson (Introduction)
Key Phrases: Major Quive-Smith, Black Hat, Holy George (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

New Statesman review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"A story that grows wilder and woollier with every passing sentence...Short, sweet, and compulsively readable, we dare you to try and put it down." --Men's Journal, #1 on the list of "The 15 Best Thrillers Ever Written"

"The quintessential cat-and-mouse thriller. The plot is simple and unbearably suspenseful...Household boils down his narrative to its rawest elements, and the effect is gut-wrenching." --Playboy

“Household…helped to develop the suspense story into an art form.” –The New York Times

A “classic of adventure suspense.” –Los Angeles Times

"Rogue Male must forever remain a classic." –John Gardner

"To my enormous pleasure, I read it almost in one sitting and was gripped from beginning to end. The writing is incredibly clear and the action comes so quickly that it is difficult to believe how much happens in the first five pages...It quickly becomes one of the most vivid lone wolf stories I have read." --Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys

"The quintessential man-on-the-run thriller." --Booklist

A “riproaring adventure yarn about a man being chased by the agents of a cruel dictator.” –The Financial Times

"Rogue Male remains as exciting and probing as ever, and the reason lies as much in its incisive psychology and timeless crispness of language as in its sensational plot." –The Times (UK)

“Simply the best escape and pursuit story yet written, with lip-chewing tension right to the end.” –The Times (UK)

“Rogue Male is that rare literary species–a thriller which has lasted…Its title has passed into the language; you can buy T-shirts and mugs stamped with the phrase. Two films have been made…” –The Daily Telegraph

“A great book about an assassin who's a big game hunter and goes to Europe on the eve of World War II…It has the best opening page I've ever read and is not nearly as well known as it should be.” – Robert Harris, The Daily Mail (UK)

“And if you prefer your yarns more ripping, Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household is the rippingest I've read. Hunter becomes hunted becomes hunter again with scarcely a quiver of a stiff upper lip. Brilliant.” –The Times (UK)

“Rogue Male…has achieved deservedly classic status. It's an exciting story, told in a crisp, no-nonsense style reminiscent of John Buchan.” –The Mail on Sunday (UK)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590172434
• ISBN-13: 978-1590172438
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,042 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 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!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	"alasdhair_c" (Texas Hill Country) - 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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing Quality, January 3, 2008

By	Michael Moore (Statesboro,, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Rogue Male was meant as a thriller. One could put it in the same genre as books by Dan Brown, Michael Crichton, even Elmore Leonard. However, there is one distinguishing feature that separates Rogue Male from the dozens of thrillers filling the aisles of bookstores and that is the quality of writing. None of the above can measure up to RM in terms of language and syntax. The difference in quality is palpable. Basic descriptions and plot devices are figurative. Sandra Stotsky writes about this in her book, Losing Our Language and I am starting to agree with her. Books fifty years ago were better written on average than books today. Books written 100 years ago are an even better deal if one likes quality. Very few present day writers of even serious fiction (I am excluding Cormac McCarthy, J.M. Coetzee and Toni Morrison,) can stand comparison. I am not sure whether many writers write down to their audiences or whether this is what our education system now produces. Rogue Male reminds us that good writing is getting harder and harder to come by.