The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell.
The story features a big-game hunter from New York City who falls off a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.
The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.
Connell was one of the most popular American short story writers of his time. He had equal success as a journalist and screenwriter and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1942 for best original story.
The Most Dangerous game has been called the "most popular short story ever written in English." Upon its publication, it won the O. Henry Award.