Literature’s Great Escapes: 6 Tales of Escape to Get Lost In

The Man in the Iron Mask print from 1789

We love a good escape film here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, but if you really want to get invested in whether or not the hero makes it out in one piece, a book is the way to go.

Below, we list six of the most riveting escapes found in literature.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844–45)

The oldest and some would argue the best escape tale on our list. Dumas’s enduring swashbuckling adventure sees Edmond Dantès falsely imprisoned and thrown into jail to rot, only to escape and get the best revenge of all: complete and total success.

2. Papillon by Henri Charrière (1970)

It’s hard to believe Papillon is a non-fiction autobiography, but it is. Henri Charrière, another victim of false conviction, was given a life sentence of hard labour in the Devil’s Island penal colony. As nice as that sounds, Charrière plotted an unbelievable escape instead.

3. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (2015)

This dystopic novel centres on a group of ten young women who have been kidnapped and locked up in dismal conditions in the middle of the Australian Outback. As food supplies dwindle and their captors grow ever more unpredictable, the women must find a way to escape not only their imprisonment but the harsh desert environment.

4. The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas (1847–50)

Better known as the tale of the Man in the Iron Mask, this second entry from Dumas comes from his Three Musketeers series. Though mostly about the Musketeers, the novel revolves around a real, unnamed person who spent his life as a prisoner of Louis XIV—with his face completely covered the entire time. In Dumas’s version, the man escapes (wasn’t so lucky in real life).

5. Room by Emma Donoghue (2010)

Less about the escape and more about what comes after, Donoghue’s book follows the story of a five-year-old boy named Jack, who has been held captive in a small room his entire life, alongside his mother. Until, one day, he learns the there is more to the world than the four walls he lives in.

6. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King (1982)

Yet another book that’s been made into a film and yet another tale of false imprisonment and, Stephen King’s novella about a postwar banker named Andy Dufresne continues to be one of his most popular stories and film adaptations. Plus, it includes one of the most famous escape scenes of all time.

You can book your own escape adventure for you and up to seven friends in one of Krakit’s four-themed escape games here.

Top Five Historical Labyrinths and Mazes

The concept of trapping people in a confusing space goes way, way back. But while escape rooms are all about a great night out, historical escape challenges—like mazes and labyrinths—haven’t always been about fun and games.

First designed for spiritual contemplation, it took quite a while for labyrinths to become the discombobulating entertainment we know today.

3000 BCE—Labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky

Image: Vitold Muratov (CC)

The greatest number of ancient labyrinths still existing are found on remote islands in the White Sea of Russia. Made of boulders placed in spiraling patterns on the ground, there is definitely no danger of getting lost in these labyrinths.

Instead of being used to confuse and trap people, these structures were more likely used for religious contemplation or even potentially as traps to catch fish in low tides.

1800 BCE—The Egyptian Labyrinth

Image: Archive of Affinities

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhet III was behind the construction of this gigantic labyrinth, which spanned 12 courts connected by crisscrossing corridors and shafts, with a few fake doors thrown in for good measure.

According to the historian Herodotus, the massive maze was made up of 3,000 rooms and housed the tombs of many kings.

1500 BCE(?)—The Cretan Labyrinth

Image: AnonMoos (CC)

Perhaps the most famous labyrinth of all is King Minos’s inescapable construction on the Mediterranean island of Crete.

Designed by Daedalus and his son Icarus (yes, that Icarus), the labyrinth was a site of sacrifice to the gods. Completing all these sacrifices was the Minotaur, a half-man/half-bull creature who was fed a stream of young kids every seven years.

1675 CE—The Labyrinth of Versailles

Leave it to French king Louis XIV, known for the decadence and splendour of his court, to take the religious and sacred labyrinth and turn it into a pleasure garden.

Designed with an Aesop Fables theme, the 5.6-acre labyrinth at the Palace of Versailles was constructed out of 5-metre tall hedges and included 39 fountains. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in 1778 by Louis XVI.

1880s CE—Gustav Castan’s Mirror Maze

Image: Dave Shafer (CC)

While the date and location of the first Mirror Maze is disputed, its creator is not: Gustave Castan.

Castan, who patented his invention in 1888, took a cue from the distorting House of Mirrors often found at fairgrounds, an attraction that in turn took inspiration from the famous Hall of Mirrors at—you guessed it—Versailles. Thanks, Louis!

You can visit Vancouver escape game Krakit seven days a week. We promise: no Minotaurs.

4 of 7: Helpful Hints to Prepare for the Apocalypse

This is a seven part series outlining survival techniques based on Maslow's hierarchy (beginning with physiological needs). In the final segments (self-actualization and self-fullfilment) I'll work my way into team building culture, role diversification/intelligent responsibility-delegation, and, above all, leadership techniques.

As time passes, more travellers arrive at, what has now become, your base of operations. You’ve been reading more books everyday from the school’s library and have taken a particular shining to psychology books, supplemented by books about warfare tactics. By positioning yourself as the founder of the resistance camp, a new name has emerged for the survivors: each person allowed to pass through the gym lock-up test has become a full fledged member of “The Righteous.” Endowing each Righteous leader with a title, rank, and position within the camp, a flow of responsibilities has emerged by way of an established, merit-based chain of command. You write a constitution outlining a larger goal for The Righteous allowing for input, change, and assimilation of knowledge.

• ESTEEM: “Everyone within The Righteous, a name chosen to give hope and esteem, has a responsibility to one another,” you tell your colleagues in a group forum led by a round-table panel of contributors representing each part of the camp, witnessed by the ranks of Righteous who now live in the school’s dormitories. “We are part of a world wide network fighting not only for humanity’s survival; together, we are part of a larger cause that unites us under circumstances allowing us to use these challenges to grow, thrive, and, above all, evolve.” The panel listens patiently as you speak aloud this formal, introductory speech to the meeting. Each word you deliver from the speech is deliberate and emphasized accordingly in a rhetoric and cadence which has set precedence for your benevolent leadership a unifiable justification for peace and growth. As you have brought people into your home with hope of vigilant safety, fulfilling their primary needs, and incorporating them into a circle of trust and acceptance, you have become the esteemed leader of leaders within The Righteous’s headquarters.

Think Outside Your Faction

"No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens."

-Insurgent

That 'something real' could be a turn in Vancouver's most challenging escape game. Measured up against four uniquely themed escape rooms, players must use all areas of their brain, not just the corners they excel at to succeed.

This is one of themes that Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, the source of the quote above, explores. The novels and now films are set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have been divided into factions. The faction setup works like a caste system, where individuals are taught to only associate and strive towards positions within their social group. This control is based on the individuals within the group identifying with the pre-conceived character traits that are attached to each faction. Once they identify and understand their position, they are less likely to use the traits of the other factions for problem solving, thus limiting their potential. It is only the divergent members, the ones who display traits from all of the factions, who contain the potential to disrupt the system.

It is an interesting scenario, one which we see played out in our everyday lives. Individuals who succeed at work, at sports even in relationships, seem to have a rounder sense of being. When our skills are too specialized, we often can't find a practical use for them. It is only with a grasp of the larger picture that we are able to make our creative productions shine.

The same thing happens in the Krakit rooms. Players need creativity, logic, intelligence and perseverance to make their escape. Their natural tendencies, or faction traits, might lead them towards one line of thinking, but their ability to change perspective will allow them to engage the problem on more then one front. The divergent mind will always trump the specialized.

Insurgent, the second film in the Divergent series, will open in theatres across North America on March 20th, 2015.