There are fewer who do not know how he ultimately ends up atop the giant Empire State Building battling planes, the symbol of nature battling the enforcers of civilisation. Most people know of how he came from a mysterious island to New York. However, this novelisation was written and released before the movie reached cinema screens.īy now almost everyone in western civilisation knows the basic premise of King Kong. Yet, interestingly, in the case of this classic novel, like with another classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, the book is a novelisation of the film. It reminds me of a similar book by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan of the Apes, as the idea behind King Kong - that of a savage king of the wild encountering westernised civilisation - is similar. In the case of King Kong, the legend of the beastly Kong survives mainly due to the second reason, with the nature of its ideas being greater than the book itself. Yet I believe that one of those two features dominates as to why it is remembered as a classic work of fiction. I'm not suggesting that a classic cannot be both, for instance Pride and Prejudice is both a social commentary and beautifully written.

The second being that they may contain ideas which are universally relevant. The first being that they are incredibly well written novels that become examples of their craft. It seems to me that classics tend to become classics for one of two reasons. Cooper, producer of the original 1933 classic film. This Modern Library edition of a true colossus among adventure stories is reprinted from the original 1932 novelization of the movie script, and includes a Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz, the preeminent biographer of Merian C. One cannot help but be frightened by Kong’s uncontrollable fury, be saddened over the giant’s capture, mistreatment, and exploitation by venal showmen, or sympathize with the beast’s ill-fated affection for the down-on-her-luck starlet Ann Darrow. So great is the mighty Kong’s hold on the popular imagination that his story–a gripping yarn of man versus nature, coupled with a fantastical update of the Beauty and the Beast legend–has been thrice made into a motion picture (most recently in 2005) and referenced endlessly in every medium, from books to prime-time sitcoms.īeneath King Kong’s cultural significance, however, is a tense and surprisingly tender story. The giant prehistoric gorilla King Kong is one of the most recognized images in our culture.

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