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The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
"The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories" is a classic collection of some of the most loved short stories of Rudyard Kipling. Contained here in this volume are the following short stories: The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes; The Phantom 'Rickshaw; Gemini; A Wayside Comedy; At Twenty-Two; The Education of Otis Yeere; The Hill of Illusion; Dray Wara Yow Dee; The Judgment of Dungara; With the Main Guard; In Flood Time; Only a Subaltern; Baa Baa, Black Sheep; At the Pit's Mouth; Black Jack; On the City Wall; and The Man Who Would be King.
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1885
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About the author
Rudyard Kipling
7,156 books3,672 followersJoseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
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November 9, 2025
"No other country was more fitted to welcome a conqueror; no other conqueror was more welcome than the British. What went wrong? Some say the Mutiny; some say the arrival in India afterwards of white women." - V.S.Naipaul, An Area of Darkness
The title story is an easy 5/5. It is a rollicking action adventure told from the point of view of a newspaperman who is accosted by a couple of ruffians - Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot who dream of becoming strongmen kings in British India's chaotic and mutinous mountain kingdoms. These kingdoms are perpetually at war with each other and Peachy and Daniel figure they could train one of the kingdoms in warfare and create a little empire there. Though the short story does end rather badly for the adventurers, it is a tale of British valor and enterprise. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the story, it is that war between different races of people could be because the dominant race moves in on the women of the dominated race. In this story, Daniel tries to claim a queen from among the people whom he helped train. In William Dalrymple's Return of a King, a dispute over an Afghan woman (who was a harem girl of a powerful Afghan warlord) who was seduced by a British officer turned the Afghans against the British. After the rebellion begins, Peachy even says aloud that "this is our own fifty seven".
Is there a common thread that connects the stories in this collection? Maybe. Most of them are about the longings, frustrations and sexual escapades of British administrators (Sahibs) during British rule over India.
Here is Naipaul on the "Kipling Administrator":
"The Kipling administrator, perpetually sahib-ed and huzoor-ed, hedged around by fabulous state, is yet an exile, harassed, persecuted, misunderstood by his superiors and the natives he strives to elevate; and on his behalf Kipling can rise to towering heights of mock-anger and can achieve a mock-aggressive self-pity: play within play."
A Wayside Comedy is about a love quadrangle in the hill station of Kashima. But even after everyone finds out about each other, the cuckolded man and the infiltrator go off hunting together because "We cant get out of this place. What is there to do?"
At the Pits Mouth - A British woman is having an affair with a "Tertium Quid" while her husband is away toiling somewhere, sending her money every month. Kipling uses some foregrounding here to predict the violent end for the couple.
Georgie Porgie - A British administrator Georgie Porgie takes a Burmese woman as his wife after paying money to her husband. But though his cheeroot smoking wife is devoted to him, he soon begins to have fantasies of having a "sweet English maiden" as his wife. So he sends his Burmese wife away to her father and travels back to England to get a proper British wife. Georgie Porgie returns to India with his newly acquired British wife. The Burmese woman goes in search of her estranged husband.
My Lord the Elephant - Two tall tales. One involving a British ruffian who gets drunk and conquers an enraged elephant who was running amock, by hitting the animal on the head with the butt of a gun. The second tale about how the elephant stops some sort of expedition so that it can have its conqueror once more on its back. This story was a bit indecipherable due to the dialog which is written in working class British lingo.
At the End of the Passage - Another story about frustrated British administrators. Hummil, an overworked engineer in a cholera ravaged area of India begins to see his own apparitions. A co-worker has already shot himself and Hummil is not feeling all that good.
The title story is an easy 5/5. It is a rollicking action adventure told from the point of view of a newspaperman who is accosted by a couple of ruffians - Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot who dream of becoming strongmen kings in British India's chaotic and mutinous mountain kingdoms. These kingdoms are perpetually at war with each other and Peachy and Daniel figure they could train one of the kingdoms in warfare and create a little empire there. Though the short story does end rather badly for the adventurers, it is a tale of British valor and enterprise. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the story, it is that war between different races of people could be because the dominant race moves in on the women of the dominated race. In this story, Daniel tries to claim a queen from among the people whom he helped train. In William Dalrymple's Return of a King, a dispute over an Afghan woman (who was a harem girl of a powerful Afghan warlord) who was seduced by a British officer turned the Afghans against the British. After the rebellion begins, Peachy even says aloud that "this is our own fifty seven".
Is there a common thread that connects the stories in this collection? Maybe. Most of them are about the longings, frustrations and sexual escapades of British administrators (Sahibs) during British rule over India.
Here is Naipaul on the "Kipling Administrator":
"The Kipling administrator, perpetually sahib-ed and huzoor-ed, hedged around by fabulous state, is yet an exile, harassed, persecuted, misunderstood by his superiors and the natives he strives to elevate; and on his behalf Kipling can rise to towering heights of mock-anger and can achieve a mock-aggressive self-pity: play within play."
A Wayside Comedy is about a love quadrangle in the hill station of Kashima. But even after everyone finds out about each other, the cuckolded man and the infiltrator go off hunting together because "We cant get out of this place. What is there to do?"
At the Pits Mouth - A British woman is having an affair with a "Tertium Quid" while her husband is away toiling somewhere, sending her money every month. Kipling uses some foregrounding here to predict the violent end for the couple.
Georgie Porgie - A British administrator Georgie Porgie takes a Burmese woman as his wife after paying money to her husband. But though his cheeroot smoking wife is devoted to him, he soon begins to have fantasies of having a "sweet English maiden" as his wife. So he sends his Burmese wife away to her father and travels back to England to get a proper British wife. Georgie Porgie returns to India with his newly acquired British wife. The Burmese woman goes in search of her estranged husband.
My Lord the Elephant - Two tall tales. One involving a British ruffian who gets drunk and conquers an enraged elephant who was running amock, by hitting the animal on the head with the butt of a gun. The second tale about how the elephant stops some sort of expedition so that it can have its conqueror once more on its back. This story was a bit indecipherable due to the dialog which is written in working class British lingo.
At the End of the Passage - Another story about frustrated British administrators. Hummil, an overworked engineer in a cholera ravaged area of India begins to see his own apparitions. A co-worker has already shot himself and Hummil is not feeling all that good.
February 15, 2012
I have a weird relationship with Rudyard Kipling (and not in any kind of creepy, bothering-the-dead kind of way thank you). He wrote extensively on subjects, times and places which I find fascinating. It therefore stands to reason that I should love and be totally absorbed by his prolific literary output in all its formats. Frankly, I'm not. Kim? Zzzzz, that one nearly put me to sleep standing. The Jungle Book? Strike me down for saying this but I'm giving a thumbs up to the Disney version. I want to love them but they just fail to excite.
On the other hand, there is The Man Who Would be King which appeals wholeheartedly to all my senses of ridiculous 19th century adventuring, treasure seeking and generally being all foreign and exotic and far flung in a land far, far away.
Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan - two men who decide the the British Empire simply is not big enough for them after having performed the amazing feat of pissing off pretty much everyone in British India, and so off they go, looking for some land (specifically an actual whole country) which they can call their own. Essentially these two conmen at large have more front the entire Himalayas and manage to sufficiently charm/con/bamboozle local populations into believing their own particularly British brand of bullshit. Utilising their gift of the gab and the ability to monopolise any random situation and turn it to their advantage they do actually succeed in setting themselves up as kings. Their success is glamorous and gold laden but obviously short-lived. Slowly their schemes and dreams unravel leaving Mr Dravot's life hanging literally in the balance, while Peachy gets nailed and not in a good way.
The whole tale is narrated by Kipling himself which gives it a charmingly realistic edge, especially when he relates how the concluding part of the tale finds it's way back to civilisation. I am a sucker for this kind of story and it is the only Kipling that I actually enjoyed without a yawn. That and I secretly heart the slightly bad film which was made in 1970s. It is synonymous with rubbish Christmas viewing as kid in the 1980s and for that I will always hold it dear.
On the other hand, there is The Man Who Would be King which appeals wholeheartedly to all my senses of ridiculous 19th century adventuring, treasure seeking and generally being all foreign and exotic and far flung in a land far, far away.
Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan - two men who decide the the British Empire simply is not big enough for them after having performed the amazing feat of pissing off pretty much everyone in British India, and so off they go, looking for some land (specifically an actual whole country) which they can call their own. Essentially these two conmen at large have more front the entire Himalayas and manage to sufficiently charm/con/bamboozle local populations into believing their own particularly British brand of bullshit. Utilising their gift of the gab and the ability to monopolise any random situation and turn it to their advantage they do actually succeed in setting themselves up as kings. Their success is glamorous and gold laden but obviously short-lived. Slowly their schemes and dreams unravel leaving Mr Dravot's life hanging literally in the balance, while Peachy gets nailed and not in a good way.
The whole tale is narrated by Kipling himself which gives it a charmingly realistic edge, especially when he relates how the concluding part of the tale finds it's way back to civilisation. I am a sucker for this kind of story and it is the only Kipling that I actually enjoyed without a yawn. That and I secretly heart the slightly bad film which was made in 1970s. It is synonymous with rubbish Christmas viewing as kid in the 1980s and for that I will always hold it dear.
November 3, 2016
A peculiarly mixed collection of stories (it's a collection of three smaller collections, each originally with a general theme of its own). This represents almost the beginning of Kipling's career - having returned to his homeland in India at the age of 16 after an abusive childhood, he became a newspaperman, and eventually started writing short stories for his papers, before publishing them in collections.
In 1888, Kipling published eighty short stories in book form, of which a few dozen had previously been published in newspapers in the previous year and a half or so. This collection brings together 14 of those stories. These include the classic colonialism story, "The Man Who would be King", as well as probably the most important story for understanding the author, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", a fictionalisation of his own childhood.
These stories would have been written when Kipling was 22 or 23.
Both the content and the quality of these stories is variable, as might be expected of such a young and inexperienced author, but there are clear signs here of the genius that would be seen in his later, more famous works, and some of these stories are, or should be, classics.
More generally, they are a fascinating insight into Kipling's world - the world of British India in the later decades of the 19th century, roaming from the Afghan wars to the indolent hill station resorts to the domestic homes and nurseries of Mumbai, taking in a couple of ghost stories along the way. Throughout, Kipling employs a sharp, sometimes even brutal, ironic tone to deconstruct the failures and insanities of the society around him, from the level of government policy down to the relationships between lovers, or between parents and children - Wilde and Saki spring to mind as comparisons, although to be honest Kipling works best in these stories when he leaves the satire to the background and gives himself a proper plot to focus on.
Anyone interested in Britain or India in the 1880's (or thereabouts) should probably read these stories.
However, I can't give it full marks. Some stories are not as good as others; particularly in the early stories he can be too blunt and obvious (Wilde and Saki are both better at the satire side); and even when the stories are good, they are generally cool and distant, more to be admired than to be invested in (though there are exceptions).
In short, there's enough evidence in this collection that I'm sure you could compile a Kipling short story collection that was truly excellent, even if you confined yourself to those eighty stories from 1888; this isn't that collection, I'm afraid, but it's still well worth the £2 cost and 200 pages of reading, for its value both as a literary product and as a historical artifact.
Above all, I think I've come out of this with a much more well-rounded and interesting view of Kipling - many of these stories are nothing like his more famous works.
Anyway, my titanically (I'm not joking) lengthy full review (in five parts!) is over here on my blog if anyone can possibly sit through it all.
In 1888, Kipling published eighty short stories in book form, of which a few dozen had previously been published in newspapers in the previous year and a half or so. This collection brings together 14 of those stories. These include the classic colonialism story, "The Man Who would be King", as well as probably the most important story for understanding the author, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", a fictionalisation of his own childhood.
These stories would have been written when Kipling was 22 or 23.
Both the content and the quality of these stories is variable, as might be expected of such a young and inexperienced author, but there are clear signs here of the genius that would be seen in his later, more famous works, and some of these stories are, or should be, classics.
More generally, they are a fascinating insight into Kipling's world - the world of British India in the later decades of the 19th century, roaming from the Afghan wars to the indolent hill station resorts to the domestic homes and nurseries of Mumbai, taking in a couple of ghost stories along the way. Throughout, Kipling employs a sharp, sometimes even brutal, ironic tone to deconstruct the failures and insanities of the society around him, from the level of government policy down to the relationships between lovers, or between parents and children - Wilde and Saki spring to mind as comparisons, although to be honest Kipling works best in these stories when he leaves the satire to the background and gives himself a proper plot to focus on.
Anyone interested in Britain or India in the 1880's (or thereabouts) should probably read these stories.
However, I can't give it full marks. Some stories are not as good as others; particularly in the early stories he can be too blunt and obvious (Wilde and Saki are both better at the satire side); and even when the stories are good, they are generally cool and distant, more to be admired than to be invested in (though there are exceptions).
In short, there's enough evidence in this collection that I'm sure you could compile a Kipling short story collection that was truly excellent, even if you confined yourself to those eighty stories from 1888; this isn't that collection, I'm afraid, but it's still well worth the £2 cost and 200 pages of reading, for its value both as a literary product and as a historical artifact.
Above all, I think I've come out of this with a much more well-rounded and interesting view of Kipling - many of these stories are nothing like his more famous works.
Anyway, my titanically (I'm not joking) lengthy full review (in five parts!) is over here on my blog if anyone can possibly sit through it all.
September 6, 2018
the best ever short story. the great master
June 19, 2013
Fantastical stories and powerful imagery. Sure, technological advances have numbed us to the violence of war, but Kipling's writing loses little of its punch due to the passing time. The adventurous spirit imbued in his work still thrills the soul with its wanderlust, even its foolhardy daring. The images of death and dying, so sudden and stark, are horrific even today. One can only imagine the impact they made on the populous back home in an age when photographs were in their infancy.
December 16, 2021
Usually when you want to be diplomatic in criticism towards a set of short stories you would describe them as "uneven." That would be too generous to this collection which I can safely say were unreadable and almost incomprehensible at times, with the exception of the excellent beginning and ending stories, the latter of which is named in the title. The Man Who Would Be King is a great story of madness in the colonial hinterlands along the lines of Heart of Darkness, whereas the lead story of this set about a British official in India who ends up trapped in a village of the living-dead is probably the best of the lot. About the rest, I'm not even sure what to say. The stories are disjointed, brief, undeveloped, and uninteresting. Kipling was a man of his time with regards to social attitudes but that actually makes his writing slightly more interesting when read in the present day. The bigger problem with his work is that he fails to flesh out his characters and narratives, at least in these stories, and leaves the reader somewhat bewildered at the end about what they have just read. Far be it for me to criticize a recognized legend of English literature but I have to be honest that most of these stories left me unmoved.
March 14, 2012
Rudyard Kipling might be deeply unfashionable these days but I have a weakness for unfashionable writers. He was something that is almost unimaginable these days - an enormously popular writer who also won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He’s also the sort of writer the PC Thought Police would like to stop us from reading.
Kipling was one of the grand masters of the art of the short story and The Man Who Would Be King and other stories gives us five splendid examples.
I’ve been meaning to get round to reading the title story for years, ever since the first time I saw John Huston’s magnificent 1975 film adaptation. It was a remarkably faithful adaptation, but then it’s such a great story and so perfectly suited to cinematic adaptation that there was really no reason to change anything.
A newspaperman in British India in the late 19th century encounters two somewhat disreputable British adventurers. They tell him their plan, which is a simple one. They intend to journey to a remote valley on the borders of Afghanistan and set themselves up as kings. They have pooled their financial resources in order to buy twenty Martini rifles. With their own military backgrounds (they might be rogues but they’re trained soldiers with an appreciation for the virtues of military discipline) and these guns they will teach the inhabitants of the valley the art of modern warfare, whereupon they will undoubtedly be acclaimed as kings.
The journalist takes a certain liking to these two adventurers but there’s not the slightest doubt in his mind they he will never see them alive again.
A couple of years later a broken wreck of a man shambles into his newspaper office and he learns the strange fates of Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot.
Of the other stories in the collection The Phantom Rickshaw is an effective ghost story whilst The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes is a bizarre but excellent piece of weird fiction concerning the place where the dead who aren’t really dead end up.
Without Benefit of Clergy is a tale of a relationship between a British colonial official and an Indian Muslim woman that demonstrates Kipling’s complex and subtle understanding of the problems of colonialism for both sides.
Kipling was an intelligent, humane and perceptive writer who deserves to be more widely read. The Man Who Would Be King and other stories is a pretty good place to start.
Kipling was one of the grand masters of the art of the short story and The Man Who Would Be King and other stories gives us five splendid examples.
I’ve been meaning to get round to reading the title story for years, ever since the first time I saw John Huston’s magnificent 1975 film adaptation. It was a remarkably faithful adaptation, but then it’s such a great story and so perfectly suited to cinematic adaptation that there was really no reason to change anything.
A newspaperman in British India in the late 19th century encounters two somewhat disreputable British adventurers. They tell him their plan, which is a simple one. They intend to journey to a remote valley on the borders of Afghanistan and set themselves up as kings. They have pooled their financial resources in order to buy twenty Martini rifles. With their own military backgrounds (they might be rogues but they’re trained soldiers with an appreciation for the virtues of military discipline) and these guns they will teach the inhabitants of the valley the art of modern warfare, whereupon they will undoubtedly be acclaimed as kings.
The journalist takes a certain liking to these two adventurers but there’s not the slightest doubt in his mind they he will never see them alive again.
A couple of years later a broken wreck of a man shambles into his newspaper office and he learns the strange fates of Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot.
Of the other stories in the collection The Phantom Rickshaw is an effective ghost story whilst The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes is a bizarre but excellent piece of weird fiction concerning the place where the dead who aren’t really dead end up.
Without Benefit of Clergy is a tale of a relationship between a British colonial official and an Indian Muslim woman that demonstrates Kipling’s complex and subtle understanding of the problems of colonialism for both sides.
Kipling was an intelligent, humane and perceptive writer who deserves to be more widely read. The Man Who Would Be King and other stories is a pretty good place to start.
May 23, 2016
Four stars for the title story alone; the rest are so-so Kipling also-rans. But what a title story -- and an even better film! Sean Connery, Michael Caine AND Christopher Plummer!!
June 15, 2016
The best thing I can say is that I finished. I listened to the audio book several times and I read almost all of them over and I still couldn't tell anyone what some of them were about. A few were simply unfathomable to me. Several were very exciting, but strange. My goal was to get through the title story to see the movie. I didn't want the movie to tell me what Kipling wrote. How pathetic was that? I read every word and all the mumbo-jumbo too. Moving on...
I hope Kim is better. I really want to know the story.
I hope Kim is better. I really want to know the story.
February 26, 2011
I'm told that Kipling is out of fashion these days, but he was, and is, something else. Standing for and writing about a bygone age, his heart was always with the working class English foot soldiers of the Raj, and this short story allows two of them to follow an odd path to a near obscure glory in the wilds of Afghanistan. This was made into a cracking film with Sean Connery and Michael Caine, which filled in a lot of the colour that this book misses out in its brevity. The story is a good one though, and powers along to its inevitable conclusion as the two soldiers become undone by ego and dreams of Empire. Coming to think of it, maybe Kipling was telling another story here by analogy, but I just enjoyed the tale told at face value.
January 12, 2018
This collection of short stories had to be one of the better reads in my Literature class. I enjoyed a majority of the stories, and I honestly liked how it gave me a view of colonized India from the English view point. It did have a lot of racist undertones because of the time it was written, but some of the stories were good and had great themes.
January 22, 2023
In the past few years, I've read a few of Rudyard Kipling's; Captains Courageous, Puck of Pook's Hill and Just So Stories, all of which displayed the depth and breadth of his writing. The Man Who Would Be King: and Other Stories is a collection of short stories set in India during the time of the Raj. Kipling was born and raised in India and he tells stories from his experience.
This collection contains 14 stories, some dealing with adults, some with children (my favorites I think) and some with soldiers. The setting of Simla is a frequent one. Simla was the summer capital of the Raj, where the British rulers spent their summers in the coolness of the mountains. There seem to have been a lot of extramarital relationships taking place there.
Let's try and rank the stories. My least favorite for the most part were the initial ones set in Simla as they didn't really resonate with me, in fact, I didn't really get some of them. In the middle are some neat little ghost-like stories; The Phantom Rickshaw, My Own True Ghost Story and The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes (very creepy). The Man Who Would be King (turned into a movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine) was very interesting, a story told to a newspaper reporter by one of the men who took over a country. Wee Willie Winkie, Baa Baa Black Sheep and His Majesty the King all feature children put in difficult positions but showing great strength and character, even heroism. The last story is a bit of a throw-in and not necessarily a favorite.
It's definitely a nice mix of short stories, some much better than the others but it's worth reading to get a feel of their lives in India, not a complete picture because it's very one-sided, but still a picture. It's worth trying just to get a feel for Kipling's story-telling and writing skill. (3.5 stars)
This collection contains 14 stories, some dealing with adults, some with children (my favorites I think) and some with soldiers. The setting of Simla is a frequent one. Simla was the summer capital of the Raj, where the British rulers spent their summers in the coolness of the mountains. There seem to have been a lot of extramarital relationships taking place there.
Let's try and rank the stories. My least favorite for the most part were the initial ones set in Simla as they didn't really resonate with me, in fact, I didn't really get some of them. In the middle are some neat little ghost-like stories; The Phantom Rickshaw, My Own True Ghost Story and The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes (very creepy). The Man Who Would be King (turned into a movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine) was very interesting, a story told to a newspaper reporter by one of the men who took over a country. Wee Willie Winkie, Baa Baa Black Sheep and His Majesty the King all feature children put in difficult positions but showing great strength and character, even heroism. The last story is a bit of a throw-in and not necessarily a favorite.
It's definitely a nice mix of short stories, some much better than the others but it's worth reading to get a feel of their lives in India, not a complete picture because it's very one-sided, but still a picture. It's worth trying just to get a feel for Kipling's story-telling and writing skill. (3.5 stars)
June 21, 2025
My first time ever reading Kipling and I am not impressed. This is a tedious meandering story that falls somewhere between Heart of Darkness by Conrad and The Country of the Blind by H G Wells. Two far more substantial and challenging pieces of writing. The characters are flaccid caricatures that estrange the reader from the text so much that I'm unsure what Kipling even wants us to think about. The story unfolds as a classical tragedy where the characters, through their ambition, create an untenable situation that ends in their undoing. The problem is that no attempt is made to investigate them. They are just two unlikeable scoundrels that got what they deserved. The tragedy doesn't work because nothing tragic has actually happened.
The farcical tragedy dances carefully on top of the concealed real tragedy with eyes closed pretending not to notice it in the hope that you will not notice it either. The real tragedy being British imperial domination of the Indian subcontinent, something Kipling was a staunch supporter of. I have no time for this nonsense. Anyway go listen to this it will expand your mind:
https://youtu.be/DGB2f0cKyQs?si=HTjXq...
The farcical tragedy dances carefully on top of the concealed real tragedy with eyes closed pretending not to notice it in the hope that you will not notice it either. The real tragedy being British imperial domination of the Indian subcontinent, something Kipling was a staunch supporter of. I have no time for this nonsense. Anyway go listen to this it will expand your mind:
https://youtu.be/DGB2f0cKyQs?si=HTjXq...
December 21, 2010
Rudyard Kipling –do we love him for his well-formulated stories of colonial India or despise him for his imperialist attitude and his nigh-willful delusions concerning the treatment of the native peoples and the “white man’s burden”? Either way, Kipling’s works provide us with a window into the world of British imperialism from the point of view of the conquerors. The ideologies that justified the expansionist beliefs can often be determined more clearly in the forms of stories than tracts, and the short story is rather the modern parable when it comes to political and social hobbyhorses.
The Man Who Would Be King is certainly fascinating as an observational study when it comes to the racial and class relations of the place and time. On the one hand, it is certainly not in agreement with the two would-be monarchs. Their quest is quixotic, as the semi-autobiographical narrator certainly believes: irresponsible, dangerous, vainglorious. Yet, all criticism comes from worries that the white men may put themselves in harm’s way. There are places two Westerners just should not go, not because they simply aren’t wanted and it isn’t their land to begin with, but because the region itself, place and people, is unfriendly to the West. It is as though failed expansion is not so much a poor idea, but that there are places that reject the planting of a Western seed, like an inhospitable soil to a specific plant. This, of course, is true. The heroes (antiheroes?) certainly don’t understand the culture of the native people, and so comes their eventual downfall. Yet, this reveals a certain level of ambiguity. Ought the foreigners to try to learn more of the countries they inhabit? Or, is Kipling pointing out the futility of trying to assimilate with the culture, pressing a white-dominated ideology?
I believe, in the context of Kipling’s other work, most especially The Jungle Book and his poem “The White Man’s Burden”, there is little evidence to suggest that the author wanted to encourage the foreign occupiers to be more understanding of the native cultures. After all, in this story they turn on their leaders and kill (or attempt to kill) them and their followers in brutal ways. The only “civilized” members of the country are the ones who attempt to act, well, British. This isn’t to say that the heroes are entirely civilized themselves, but their eventual downfall is actually catalyzed by trying to be too native and even, (doom, sorrow and forlorn), trying to marry into the native people. (Women are such a corrupting luxury… )
This idea has always fascinated me. One would think that being in a new country, with new people and an unfamiliar culture would lead thinking people to want to learn more about their area and the people therein. However, de sjil seemed to be to make everything as British and ethnocentric as possible and to complain wildly of the area and the people. Why? It’s a very obvious question; the British didn’t have to be there. I’m hardly one to condemn England when America has no fewer flaws. But, really, India and the Middle East would never be England, and the fact that they, and every imperialist anywhere ever, couldn’t figure this out or were so unwilling to believe it is retrospectively astounding. Just my little thought about history.
This is not to say that the book is without literary merit. On the contrary! As a vantage point to see into this place and time, and understand the mindset of the imperialists, it is extremely valuable. The prose itself, while wordier than later modern works, especially post-Hemingway prose, but still bears the plain style and lack of floridity that is so common to the era. The use of brutality and violence as a story telling means is certainly affective if somewhat heavy-handed, as opposed to the use of the grotesque in, say, Flannery O’Connor. But, it certainly does its job. Sometimes I felt the stiff, British-gentleman persona to be off-putting; this isn’t a novella you get emotionally involved in. However, it is not a poor piece of modern English literature. It is, though, hampered by its political sensibilities and parabolic nature. It’s like an artifact: not without merit, but with merit of a specific, historical kind.
The Man Who Would Be King is certainly fascinating as an observational study when it comes to the racial and class relations of the place and time. On the one hand, it is certainly not in agreement with the two would-be monarchs. Their quest is quixotic, as the semi-autobiographical narrator certainly believes: irresponsible, dangerous, vainglorious. Yet, all criticism comes from worries that the white men may put themselves in harm’s way. There are places two Westerners just should not go, not because they simply aren’t wanted and it isn’t their land to begin with, but because the region itself, place and people, is unfriendly to the West. It is as though failed expansion is not so much a poor idea, but that there are places that reject the planting of a Western seed, like an inhospitable soil to a specific plant. This, of course, is true. The heroes (antiheroes?) certainly don’t understand the culture of the native people, and so comes their eventual downfall. Yet, this reveals a certain level of ambiguity. Ought the foreigners to try to learn more of the countries they inhabit? Or, is Kipling pointing out the futility of trying to assimilate with the culture, pressing a white-dominated ideology?
I believe, in the context of Kipling’s other work, most especially The Jungle Book and his poem “The White Man’s Burden”, there is little evidence to suggest that the author wanted to encourage the foreign occupiers to be more understanding of the native cultures. After all, in this story they turn on their leaders and kill (or attempt to kill) them and their followers in brutal ways. The only “civilized” members of the country are the ones who attempt to act, well, British. This isn’t to say that the heroes are entirely civilized themselves, but their eventual downfall is actually catalyzed by trying to be too native and even, (doom, sorrow and forlorn), trying to marry into the native people. (Women are such a corrupting luxury… )
This idea has always fascinated me. One would think that being in a new country, with new people and an unfamiliar culture would lead thinking people to want to learn more about their area and the people therein. However, de sjil seemed to be to make everything as British and ethnocentric as possible and to complain wildly of the area and the people. Why? It’s a very obvious question; the British didn’t have to be there. I’m hardly one to condemn England when America has no fewer flaws. But, really, India and the Middle East would never be England, and the fact that they, and every imperialist anywhere ever, couldn’t figure this out or were so unwilling to believe it is retrospectively astounding. Just my little thought about history.
This is not to say that the book is without literary merit. On the contrary! As a vantage point to see into this place and time, and understand the mindset of the imperialists, it is extremely valuable. The prose itself, while wordier than later modern works, especially post-Hemingway prose, but still bears the plain style and lack of floridity that is so common to the era. The use of brutality and violence as a story telling means is certainly affective if somewhat heavy-handed, as opposed to the use of the grotesque in, say, Flannery O’Connor. But, it certainly does its job. Sometimes I felt the stiff, British-gentleman persona to be off-putting; this isn’t a novella you get emotionally involved in. However, it is not a poor piece of modern English literature. It is, though, hampered by its political sensibilities and parabolic nature. It’s like an artifact: not without merit, but with merit of a specific, historical kind.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2012
If you didn't already know: Kipling's unwavering belief in the innate superiority of the White Man (especially the Englishman) over the indigenous populations of the British Empire and the view that the English presence is an unequivocal Good is ever present in his work, and colors (is that racist?) the five short stories in this volume to greater and lesser degrees.
I found nothing particularly thrilling about the psychological thriller, "The Phantom 'Rickshaw," and, moreover, it is only superficially psychological at best. Discuss amongst yourselves.
"The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes," is awful, period.
"The Man Who Would Be King," is a classic adventure yarn. I'm surprised Kipling neutered it into a short story.
"Wee-Willie Winkie" is rather charming in its old-fashioned English childishness (cf. Mary Poppins, Peter Pan).
"Without Benefit of Clergy," is a surprisingly tender and tragic story of love and loss during the British Raj. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Period romance starring Ralph Fiennes and Freida Pinto for the win!
I found nothing particularly thrilling about the psychological thriller, "The Phantom 'Rickshaw," and, moreover, it is only superficially psychological at best. Discuss amongst yourselves.
"The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes," is awful, period.
"The Man Who Would Be King," is a classic adventure yarn. I'm surprised Kipling neutered it into a short story.
"Wee-Willie Winkie" is rather charming in its old-fashioned English childishness (cf. Mary Poppins, Peter Pan).
"Without Benefit of Clergy," is a surprisingly tender and tragic story of love and loss during the British Raj. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Period romance starring Ralph Fiennes and Freida Pinto for the win!
February 9, 2018
The Anglo-Indian Kipling reminds me of what I've eaten of Indian food: you might not like it, but there's lots to choose from and, whatever you decide on, it'll be highly flavored.
These short stories were written when he was around 23, says the introduction. They're cynical and violent and unpleasantly hero-worshipping, but they're also inventive and will give you a broader perception of Empire.
All that said, "Baa Baa Black Sheep," probably the quietest story in here, is the one that I think will stick with me best. Give it a look.
These short stories were written when he was around 23, says the introduction. They're cynical and violent and unpleasantly hero-worshipping, but they're also inventive and will give you a broader perception of Empire.
All that said, "Baa Baa Black Sheep," probably the quietest story in here, is the one that I think will stick with me best. Give it a look.
January 27, 2024
Rudyard Kipling is neither fashionable nor popular these days. That's a pity because as this collection of fourteen of his short stories amply demonstrates, he was an outstanding author and an astute observer of people - all the more so as he was only in his early twenties when he wrote them.
Almost entirely based in British India, they are windows into a time and place long gone, and of the attitudes that went with it. Kipling has a reputation these days as a bit of a Jingoist but as is clear from these tales, he was a good deal more nuanced than that - there is a great deal of respect for the indigenous populations and their ways, and the white man does not always come out on top.
The setting is instructive and worth reading for that insight alone, free of our modern prejudices. However, the setting is also context. The heart of the stories are the people they revolve around - men, women and children all feature as central characters, often as underdogs, being blown about by unfathomable forces and trying to make the best of it. Some things don't change. They are very well-observed throughout and frequently just a few lines of dialogue give the reader a strong understanding of the individual.
The stories vary in length from just five pages through to twenty-nine (for The Man Who would be King), and cover a remarkable range of genres, from social observation to horror to adventure to a semi-autobiographical childhood piece. It's therefore possible to dip in and out rather than to read straight through and perhaps more enjoyable to do so too.
One interesting and useful addition to the stories is an introduction by Cedric Watts which both previews and reviews the collection, as well as giving some information about the author and so putting the pieces into the context of his life. That too is a well-judged inclusion.
As an uncluttered window into the world of the Raj (and of 19th century Britain), I'd strongly recommend reading them - they are a fine antidote to Dickens, for example - but a more powerful reason to get a copy is simply the quality of the stories and the characters themselves therein.
Almost entirely based in British India, they are windows into a time and place long gone, and of the attitudes that went with it. Kipling has a reputation these days as a bit of a Jingoist but as is clear from these tales, he was a good deal more nuanced than that - there is a great deal of respect for the indigenous populations and their ways, and the white man does not always come out on top.
The setting is instructive and worth reading for that insight alone, free of our modern prejudices. However, the setting is also context. The heart of the stories are the people they revolve around - men, women and children all feature as central characters, often as underdogs, being blown about by unfathomable forces and trying to make the best of it. Some things don't change. They are very well-observed throughout and frequently just a few lines of dialogue give the reader a strong understanding of the individual.
The stories vary in length from just five pages through to twenty-nine (for The Man Who would be King), and cover a remarkable range of genres, from social observation to horror to adventure to a semi-autobiographical childhood piece. It's therefore possible to dip in and out rather than to read straight through and perhaps more enjoyable to do so too.
One interesting and useful addition to the stories is an introduction by Cedric Watts which both previews and reviews the collection, as well as giving some information about the author and so putting the pieces into the context of his life. That too is a well-judged inclusion.
As an uncluttered window into the world of the Raj (and of 19th century Britain), I'd strongly recommend reading them - they are a fine antidote to Dickens, for example - but a more powerful reason to get a copy is simply the quality of the stories and the characters themselves therein.
August 21, 2018
Comedy, Tragedy, Romance, Ghosts, Adventure, and Kids in the British Raj
The Naxos The Man Who Would Be King collects 12 Kipling short stories originally published between 1885 and 1890. The tales are varied in quality, mood, and genre. A few are classic, a few forgettable, the rest strong. There are two adventure stories (one brutal, one surreal), two ghost stories (one straight, one comedic), three supernatural stories (one straight, two comedic), three romance stories (one comedic, one tragic, one political), and two boy stories (one comedic, one excruciating). They are unified by Kipling's authentic depiction of life in the Raj (British Empire in India); by his criticism of and sympathy for the Anglo rulers and their indigenous subjects; by his ability to write compelling stories, characters, and settings that reveal the human condition; by his first-person narrators and nested narratives; and by his concise, dynamic, and flexible style.
Here follows an annotated list of the stories.
1. The Man Who Would Be King (1888)
Two British con man "loafers" plan to become kings in Kafiristan, a mysterious, mountainous corner of Afghanistan, by smuggling in guns and training the locals in soldiery, agriculture, and infrastructure. How they succeed and fail makes an absorbing and appalling adventure story that satirizes the ignorant attempts of "superior" civs to force enlightenment on "inferior" ones, not unlike the Raj project.
2. The Phantom Rickshaw (1885/1890)
In this morbidly funny and moving psychological study of guilt Jack Pansay comes to see the phantoms of a rickshaw, its coolies, and the woman he wronged as more real than the living people around him. The doctor diagnoses overwork and indigestion, but the narrator figures that "there was a crack in Pansay's head and a little bit of the Dark World came through. . ."
3. My Own True Ghost Story (1888)
The narrator has never experienced any of the many ghosts in India, until he stays the night in a dak-bungalow. Convinced he's heard a spectral billiard game in the next room he's planning to write a ghost story with which to paralyze the British Empire-- until he takes a peek into the room.
4. The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes (1885)
After riding out into the desert to kill a wild dog, feverish engineer Morrowbie Jukes comes to his senses in a sandy crater. He finds himself among dozens of skeletal and smelly Indians dumped there after failing to die from fatal diseases. Rather than give Jukes his due respect as a white Sahib, the living dead laugh at or ignore him, and one ex-Brahmin even tries to master him. There is no escape from the pit. The vivid details and surreal horror--existence pared down to eating roast crow--prefigure Kafka or Kobo Abe.
5. The Mark of the Beast (1890)
"The gods of the heathen are stone and brass, and any attempt to deal with them otherwise is justly condemned." Everything in this story contradicts that sentiment, after a drunken Brit stubs his cigar out on the forehead of a statue of the Hindu god Hanuman and starts behaving bestially. A doctor diagnoses hydrophobia, but the narrator and the policeman Strickland suspect the curse of a leper priest.
6. Without Benefit of Clergy (1890)
John Holden is a British bachelor civil servant in India by day, an unsanctioned husband of a 16-year-old Muslim Indian girl by night. When Ameera bears a son, the couple experiences "absolute happiness," but "The delight of that life was too perfect to endure." There is great beauty, love, and pain in the story: "It was not like this when we counted the stars."
7. The Sending of Dana Da (1888)
Kipling mocks Anglo theosophy and spiritualist religious types via a mysterious (con) man's supernatural "sending" of kittens to an ailurophobic foe of the narrator.
8. Wee Willie Winkie (1888)
The 6-year-old son of the regimental colonel follows the foolish fiancé of Lt. Coppy across a verboten dried riverbed into Afghanistan, the land of the "Bad Men" ("goblins"). His little boy-talk is almost too cute (e.g., "Vis is a bad place, and I've bwoken my awwest"), his awareness that he is the "child of the dominant race" repugnant. And the bandits know that if they harm the captives, the British regiment ("devils") "will fire and rape and plunder for a month till nothing remains."
9. On the City Wall (1889)
A prostitute, her admirer, a political prisoner, a Muslim festival in a Hindu part of Lahore, and the narrator's perceptions of all those. Love, faith, India, changing times, and the difficulty (and hypocrisy) of British Raj rule. This is a great story: funny, ironic, sensual, romantic, political, and moving.
10. The Education of Otis Yeere (1888)
In this comedy of manners, Mrs. Hauksbee feels empty and wants power, so she applies all her formidable strategy and style to make a man. She molds boring Otis Yeere, whose career in the Raj is going nowhere, into a smart Man on the Rise. With its many Wildean lines (e.g., "A man is never so happy as when he is talking about himself"), the story is funny, but Otis' broken heart and Mrs. Hauksbee's ego sting.
11. The Judgment of Dungara (1888)
When a well-meaning but ignorant German missionary husband and wife succeed too well in converting the Buria Kol, a nude and lazy folk who worship a God called Dungara, the sly priest of Dungara takes action.
12. Baa Baa Black Sheep (1888)
This fictional account of the experience of Kipling and his sister uproots 5-year-old Punch and 3-year-old Judy from their idyllic lives with their parents in Bombay and inserts them for five years into the Dickensian hell of Downe Lodge in England.
The reader of the audiobook, Sean Barrett, greatly enhances the stories, handling the many characters--young or old, male or female, British or Indian, sane or mad--all just right.
If you've read Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills, you know what to expect here, though the stories in this collection are longer and fewer. Both sets of stories provide a vision of British rule in India (and of "civilized" rule of "uncivilized" peoples anywhere) more complex than merely, "Kipling was an imperial apologist." His humane interest in all kinds of people--from prostitutes to priests, from 6-year-old British Colonel's sons to aged Sikh revolutionaries--shines through.
The Naxos The Man Who Would Be King collects 12 Kipling short stories originally published between 1885 and 1890. The tales are varied in quality, mood, and genre. A few are classic, a few forgettable, the rest strong. There are two adventure stories (one brutal, one surreal), two ghost stories (one straight, one comedic), three supernatural stories (one straight, two comedic), three romance stories (one comedic, one tragic, one political), and two boy stories (one comedic, one excruciating). They are unified by Kipling's authentic depiction of life in the Raj (British Empire in India); by his criticism of and sympathy for the Anglo rulers and their indigenous subjects; by his ability to write compelling stories, characters, and settings that reveal the human condition; by his first-person narrators and nested narratives; and by his concise, dynamic, and flexible style.
Here follows an annotated list of the stories.
1. The Man Who Would Be King (1888)
Two British con man "loafers" plan to become kings in Kafiristan, a mysterious, mountainous corner of Afghanistan, by smuggling in guns and training the locals in soldiery, agriculture, and infrastructure. How they succeed and fail makes an absorbing and appalling adventure story that satirizes the ignorant attempts of "superior" civs to force enlightenment on "inferior" ones, not unlike the Raj project.
2. The Phantom Rickshaw (1885/1890)
In this morbidly funny and moving psychological study of guilt Jack Pansay comes to see the phantoms of a rickshaw, its coolies, and the woman he wronged as more real than the living people around him. The doctor diagnoses overwork and indigestion, but the narrator figures that "there was a crack in Pansay's head and a little bit of the Dark World came through. . ."
3. My Own True Ghost Story (1888)
The narrator has never experienced any of the many ghosts in India, until he stays the night in a dak-bungalow. Convinced he's heard a spectral billiard game in the next room he's planning to write a ghost story with which to paralyze the British Empire-- until he takes a peek into the room.
4. The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes (1885)
After riding out into the desert to kill a wild dog, feverish engineer Morrowbie Jukes comes to his senses in a sandy crater. He finds himself among dozens of skeletal and smelly Indians dumped there after failing to die from fatal diseases. Rather than give Jukes his due respect as a white Sahib, the living dead laugh at or ignore him, and one ex-Brahmin even tries to master him. There is no escape from the pit. The vivid details and surreal horror--existence pared down to eating roast crow--prefigure Kafka or Kobo Abe.
5. The Mark of the Beast (1890)
"The gods of the heathen are stone and brass, and any attempt to deal with them otherwise is justly condemned." Everything in this story contradicts that sentiment, after a drunken Brit stubs his cigar out on the forehead of a statue of the Hindu god Hanuman and starts behaving bestially. A doctor diagnoses hydrophobia, but the narrator and the policeman Strickland suspect the curse of a leper priest.
6. Without Benefit of Clergy (1890)
John Holden is a British bachelor civil servant in India by day, an unsanctioned husband of a 16-year-old Muslim Indian girl by night. When Ameera bears a son, the couple experiences "absolute happiness," but "The delight of that life was too perfect to endure." There is great beauty, love, and pain in the story: "It was not like this when we counted the stars."
7. The Sending of Dana Da (1888)
Kipling mocks Anglo theosophy and spiritualist religious types via a mysterious (con) man's supernatural "sending" of kittens to an ailurophobic foe of the narrator.
8. Wee Willie Winkie (1888)
The 6-year-old son of the regimental colonel follows the foolish fiancé of Lt. Coppy across a verboten dried riverbed into Afghanistan, the land of the "Bad Men" ("goblins"). His little boy-talk is almost too cute (e.g., "Vis is a bad place, and I've bwoken my awwest"), his awareness that he is the "child of the dominant race" repugnant. And the bandits know that if they harm the captives, the British regiment ("devils") "will fire and rape and plunder for a month till nothing remains."
9. On the City Wall (1889)
A prostitute, her admirer, a political prisoner, a Muslim festival in a Hindu part of Lahore, and the narrator's perceptions of all those. Love, faith, India, changing times, and the difficulty (and hypocrisy) of British Raj rule. This is a great story: funny, ironic, sensual, romantic, political, and moving.
10. The Education of Otis Yeere (1888)
In this comedy of manners, Mrs. Hauksbee feels empty and wants power, so she applies all her formidable strategy and style to make a man. She molds boring Otis Yeere, whose career in the Raj is going nowhere, into a smart Man on the Rise. With its many Wildean lines (e.g., "A man is never so happy as when he is talking about himself"), the story is funny, but Otis' broken heart and Mrs. Hauksbee's ego sting.
11. The Judgment of Dungara (1888)
When a well-meaning but ignorant German missionary husband and wife succeed too well in converting the Buria Kol, a nude and lazy folk who worship a God called Dungara, the sly priest of Dungara takes action.
12. Baa Baa Black Sheep (1888)
This fictional account of the experience of Kipling and his sister uproots 5-year-old Punch and 3-year-old Judy from their idyllic lives with their parents in Bombay and inserts them for five years into the Dickensian hell of Downe Lodge in England.
The reader of the audiobook, Sean Barrett, greatly enhances the stories, handling the many characters--young or old, male or female, British or Indian, sane or mad--all just right.
If you've read Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills, you know what to expect here, though the stories in this collection are longer and fewer. Both sets of stories provide a vision of British rule in India (and of "civilized" rule of "uncivilized" peoples anywhere) more complex than merely, "Kipling was an imperial apologist." His humane interest in all kinds of people--from prostitutes to priests, from 6-year-old British Colonel's sons to aged Sikh revolutionaries--shines through.
March 11, 2011
I downloaded the title story as well as two others in this Dover edition from Project Gutenberg -- the first things I read on my new Barnes & Noble Nook e-Reader. Thought I'd try some short stories while getting the hang of using my new device.
It had been years since I had seen the Michael Caine/Sean Connery movie, but I still found that I remembered quite a bit of it. Part of the challenge in reading "The Man Who Would Be King" was to not let my memories of the movie overshadow the tale although I found that letting Michael Caine's voice stand in for Peachey enhanced the reading).
As I read the title story, I reflected on how much a British audience of Kipling's era was familiar with that a modern audience isn't. Luckily, I have a fair amount of background in the history of the British raj, the geography of the region, and the political climate of the time, particularly as pertains to "the Great Game." Still, I suspect I missed some of the humor, particularly in the long build-up to the main events, when the narrator is experiencing a "Deficit of the Budget" and traveling "Intermediate Class" by train. These terms demonstrate part of the charm of the tale -- the use of high-flown language by the down-and-out classes, who may not have the ready money but certainly have ready wits. These are true Kipling "types" and always a treat to encounter.
There's a paternalistic attitude underpinning the tale, however, that I tried not to be judgmental about. The two adventurers, secure in their British know-how, set out to sort out the warring native tribes of fictional Kafiristan. All that's needed, it seems, are some twenty good rifles and the sort of knowledge a seasoned British campaigner would have -- how to drill an army, administer frontier justice, and deal with the natives. Kipling doesn't let this "white man's burden" aspect of the tale overwhelm the brisk narrative, to his credit, and indeed it's the violation of the terms of the adventurers' "Contrack" that proves to be their downfall.
Among the other four tales in this anthology, I liked "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes" the best, a macabre tale recounted with considerable relish. "The Phantom Rickshaw" was a lamentably predictable ghost story, while "Wee Willie Winkle," to my mind, suffered from the Victorian tendency to be overly sentimental about children. The final story, "Without Benefit of Clergy" at first glance seemed overly sentimental, concerning as it did the ill-fated affair of a British man with a local Indian woman, but its ultimate effect was one of pathos. It reminded me of a book I read last year by William Dahlrymple, White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India, which also concerned a doomed relationship.
It had been years since I had seen the Michael Caine/Sean Connery movie, but I still found that I remembered quite a bit of it. Part of the challenge in reading "The Man Who Would Be King" was to not let my memories of the movie overshadow the tale although I found that letting Michael Caine's voice stand in for Peachey enhanced the reading).
As I read the title story, I reflected on how much a British audience of Kipling's era was familiar with that a modern audience isn't. Luckily, I have a fair amount of background in the history of the British raj, the geography of the region, and the political climate of the time, particularly as pertains to "the Great Game." Still, I suspect I missed some of the humor, particularly in the long build-up to the main events, when the narrator is experiencing a "Deficit of the Budget" and traveling "Intermediate Class" by train. These terms demonstrate part of the charm of the tale -- the use of high-flown language by the down-and-out classes, who may not have the ready money but certainly have ready wits. These are true Kipling "types" and always a treat to encounter.
There's a paternalistic attitude underpinning the tale, however, that I tried not to be judgmental about. The two adventurers, secure in their British know-how, set out to sort out the warring native tribes of fictional Kafiristan. All that's needed, it seems, are some twenty good rifles and the sort of knowledge a seasoned British campaigner would have -- how to drill an army, administer frontier justice, and deal with the natives. Kipling doesn't let this "white man's burden" aspect of the tale overwhelm the brisk narrative, to his credit, and indeed it's the violation of the terms of the adventurers' "Contrack" that proves to be their downfall.
Among the other four tales in this anthology, I liked "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes" the best, a macabre tale recounted with considerable relish. "The Phantom Rickshaw" was a lamentably predictable ghost story, while "Wee Willie Winkle," to my mind, suffered from the Victorian tendency to be overly sentimental about children. The final story, "Without Benefit of Clergy" at first glance seemed overly sentimental, concerning as it did the ill-fated affair of a British man with a local Indian woman, but its ultimate effect was one of pathos. It reminded me of a book I read last year by William Dahlrymple, White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India, which also concerned a doomed relationship.
April 6, 2011
A brief, punchy story that John Huston made into a wonderful film with Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Huston and Gladys Hill kept to the outline of Kipling's story (the story is actually an outline itself), and fleshed out the characters unforgettably. This is really Peachy Carnahan's story, and his telling of his and Daniel Dravot's adventures in Kafiristan (northeast Afghanistan)is heartbreaking, despite the con artists' hubris and stupidity. I suppose this is a microcosm of the British experience in Afghanistan - as well as the Russians'. Whether colonialism writ large, or colonialism writ small, it all seemed doomed from the start.
June 12, 2018
The Man Who Would Be King was the best in this collection but all stories are worth the short amount of time it would take to read this book. However, Kipling's poetry leaves much to be desired...that the reader might skip over and the book would be the better for it.
One note to the Social Justice crowd: Kipling was a man of his time, therefore there are racial references that may be disturbing to you. You've been warned.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
If you enjoy Kipling and adventure fiction then this book would be a welcome addition to your library.
Always fun.
One note to the Social Justice crowd: Kipling was a man of his time, therefore there are racial references that may be disturbing to you. You've been warned.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
If you enjoy Kipling and adventure fiction then this book would be a welcome addition to your library.
Always fun.
June 14, 2013
I have read some exceptional Rudyard Kipling stories in the past ("They" and "Riki-Tiki-Tavi" come to mind), but it seems to me that the purpose of this particular collection (all stories set in British colonial India) was to gather up the worst of Kipling's stories into one volume in order to torture the reader with boredom.
April 18, 2022
A very strange collection of stories, including a couple of verse-form. Kipling's just kind of out there for me. Entertaining at times, and at others just odd.
March 1, 2021
5 ⭐ The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
At least for this story, Hindus have a custom where, if death lays hold of you, and you are on your way, or at the ghat, to be burned by the river, and if you somehow recover, and seem to be breathing, your mouth and nose are stuffed with mud. If you resist too much, then you are taken to the place of the"living dead." A crater in the sand, in the lower central Indian Desert, inescapable with its three sides of 65° slope, and the fourth side opening on a river and quicksand. In the river, a boat patrols, where anyone trying to escape is shot.
An English engineer, suffering deliriously from fever, rides his horse out with a"hog spear," intending to kill a dog baying at the moon, interrupting his rest. The horse takes off like crazy, having not been let out of his stall for days, and after a wild ride, stumbles over the lip of the crater, and horse and rider tumble down the aforementioned slope.
A colony of the"living dead," abominably stinking, is what Jukes discovers living in this forsaken place, where the only thing to be found to eat, is crow, if you can trick it into letting you catch it.
Now what does he do?
3 ⭐ The Phantom Rickshaw
A man seduces another man's wife on the Peninsula and Orientation steamship, going back to India. After he uses her up, he cruelly dropped her. So she haunts him. Oh, that all user-men could in reality be done this way.
His fiancee dumps him after he tells her he is haunted by his ex-girlfriend. He has a breakdown, and while recovering, gets a letter from her. His doctor reads him part of it:
"says that a man who would have behaved to a woman as you did to Mrs wessington ought to kill himself out of sheer pity for his kind."
The sniveling man feels sorry for himself:
"why couldn't Agnes have left me alone? I never did her any harm. It might just as well have been me as agnes. Only I'd never have come back on purpose to kill her. Why can't I be left alone - left alone and happy?"
He wants us to pity him 😂
"Pity me, at least on the score of my 'delusion,' for I know you will never believe what I have written here. Yet as surely as ever a man was done to death by the Powers of Darkness I am that man.
In justice, too, pity her. For as surely as ever woman was killed by man, I killed Mrs wessington. And the last portion of my punishment is even now upon me."
2 ⭐ Gemini
Twin brothers: both money-lenders, and they hate each other. One lends money to a rich landowner, the other lends money to poor villagers. The poorer one is beaten by the landowner, thinking he is his brother. The richer one picks him up and brings him to his house, to "care" for him. But he robs him instead.
I don't feel sorry for any money lender and I think that's the moral of the story.
3 ⭐ A Wayside Comedy
A bleak look at adultery in an isolated "Station" with only two married couples and a bachelor. Men suck.
3 ⭐ At Twenty Two
A take-off on the story of Germinal (where miners die in a flooding mine shaft).
2 ⭐ The Education of Otis Yeere
These ladies of leisure, that Kipling writes of in this short story, have too much time on their hands, and spend it meddling in young men's lives. Young men most often can largely stand improvement, in my disappointed experience, so I guess they could do worse.
One seasoned meddler, Mrs Mallowe, is coaching a less seasoned meddler, Mrs Haukesbee, in how to mold a young man.
" 'I warn you,' said Mrs Mallowe, beginning to repent of her suggestion, 'that the matter is not half so easy as it looks. Any woman - even the topsham girl - can catch a man, but very, very few know how to manage him when caught.' " 🙄
3 ⭐ The Hill of Illusion
A married woman and her Sancho have decided to run away together. He comes into town and they go for a rickshaw ride, discussing final arrangements.
2 ⭐ Dray Wara Yow Dee (all three are one)
Dumb story about a guy who got cuckolded and couldn't let it go. 🙄
2 ⭐ The Judgment of Dungara (the God Dungara is the God of Things as They Are)
"ask the grey heads of the Bannockburn medical Crusade what manner of Life their preachers lead; speak to the Racine gospel agency, those lean Americans whose boast is that they go where no English man there follow; get a pastor of the tübingen mission to talk of his experiences -- if you can. you will be referred to the printed reports, but these contain no mention of the men who have lost youth and health, all that a man may lose except faith, in the wilds; of English maidens who have gone forth and died in the fever-stricken jungle of the Panth hills, knowing from the first that death was almost a certainty. Few pastors will tell you of these things anymore than they will speak of that young David of St Bees who, set apart from the Lord's work, broke down in the utter desolation, and returned half distraught to the head mission, crying, 'there is no god, but I have walked with the devil!' "
Oh, those crooked missionaries got their just desserts in this one!
2 ⭐ With the Main Guard
Some Scotch soldiers have the midnight watch on the fort at Lahore, and it's blazing hot. To distract themselves, they tell the story of a battle they destroyed the enemy in. But their accents are written so thick, that half the reading of it is trying to figure out what they're saying.
The cute part is a little 2-year-old, walking in her sleep they find by the ditch where they go to cool off when the relief guard comes at 4 am.
3 ⭐ The Flood Time
An Englishman wants to cross the River Barhwi, but it's too swollen by rains. The old Muslim crossing-keeper invites him into his hut, invites him to his hookah, to await the river going down. Meanwhile, he recounts a story from his youth, when he was having a midnight affair across the river with a Hindi widow, and a great flood in the river nearly drowned him.
The Englishman is too grumpy for the hospitality of the crossing-keeper, imo.
2 ⭐ Only a Subaltern
An English boy makes it into some famous regiment in India, that his father had been famous in before him. He rises in the ranks and is the favorite of his commanding officers. After 3 years, he gets 3 months leave in Simla, where he attends balls, etc. He gets recalled after 2 months because of an outbreak of cholera. He goes back and rallies the men under him, especially one who is drinking too much (they thought that spirits would help fight off sickness). Sad ending.
3 ⭐ Baa Baa Black Sheep
The author and his little sister, at the ages of 5 and 3, are taken to England and boarded with strangers, for what reason the reader is not told. It's a horrible place for the boy, but the girl is coddled by the woman. The husband, "Uncle Harry," is his only solace, as he takes him for long walks to the ocean and around the countryside. The couple's son is a bully to the young Kipling. "Aunty Rosa" teaches him to read, however unwillingly, and then he is able to write letters to his parents in Bombay. Best of all, he can escape his misery in books he finds in the house, and those he is sent by his father. Alas, it's also a source for Aunt Rosa's punishment:
" 'don't disturve me, I'm reading. Go and play in the kitchen,' grunted punch.' Auntie Rosa lets YOU go there.' Judy was cutting her second teeth and was fretful. she appealed to auntie rosa, who descended on punch.
'I was reading,' he explained, 'reading a book. I WANT to read.'
'you're only doing that to show off,' said auntie Rosa. 'But we'll see. Play with Judy now, and don't open a book for a week.'
Judy did not pass a very enjoyable play time with punch, who was consumed with indignation. There was a pettiness at the bottom of the prohibition which puzzled him.
'it's what I like to do,' he said, 'and she's found out that and stopped me. Don't cry, Ju -- it wasn't your fault -- please don't cry, or she'll say I made you.' "
Life gets worse and worse for the previously spoiled boy, with frequent beatings. He graduates to the name of "Black Sheep." His only solace is to read, which is frequently denied him as a punishment.
Uncle Harry dies, making life that much bleaker, and he is made to go to day-school.
The boy Harry gets him in more trouble there, encouraging boys to beat him.
After 5 years, the missing parents show up. Much damage has been done by then.
5 ⭐ At the Pit's Mouth
This is one of those stories that gives you über schadenfreude.
3 ⭐ Black Jack
The "three musketeers," soldiers from Ireland who share their ups and downs, are once again in a story. One of them recounts a tale of twelve "black Irish" soldiers who conspire to murder an officer and blame it on him, their roommate. But he overhears them planning it, and does his own conspiring.
You have to get used to the way their Irish accent is written, or you will get a headache trying to figure out what Kipling is saying.
2 ⭐ On the City Wall
Lalun, a sex worker, holds a salon in her house in the City Wall of Lahore. The narrator goes there often and meets Wali Dad, an agnostic Muslim there. From Lalun's window, you can see the Fort, where an old, famous Sikh is kept imprisoned.
On the night of a Muslim festival, the Hindus and the muslims clash, and a riot begins. Amidst the fighting, (as the troops from the fort have been called out) Khem Singh escapes, and Lalun helps him climb up the City Wall to her window. The narrator escorts him across the city, where a hired carriage awaits him.
3 ⭐ The Man Who Would be King
Pretty crazy story about two Loafers (Englishmen in India with no visible means of support), who come to the newspaperman narrator's office in the steaming hot madrugada of a June night some city in India, asking to look at maps and encyclopedias, telling him they are going to the mountain villages of afghanistan to be Kings. Three years later, same hot madrugada, same steaming June night, and a broken-down, hobbled man comes straggling into the newspaperman narrator's office and tells him their story, of finding a village of white supposed descendents of Alexander the Great, and making them their subjects.
At least for this story, Hindus have a custom where, if death lays hold of you, and you are on your way, or at the ghat, to be burned by the river, and if you somehow recover, and seem to be breathing, your mouth and nose are stuffed with mud. If you resist too much, then you are taken to the place of the"living dead." A crater in the sand, in the lower central Indian Desert, inescapable with its three sides of 65° slope, and the fourth side opening on a river and quicksand. In the river, a boat patrols, where anyone trying to escape is shot.
An English engineer, suffering deliriously from fever, rides his horse out with a"hog spear," intending to kill a dog baying at the moon, interrupting his rest. The horse takes off like crazy, having not been let out of his stall for days, and after a wild ride, stumbles over the lip of the crater, and horse and rider tumble down the aforementioned slope.
A colony of the"living dead," abominably stinking, is what Jukes discovers living in this forsaken place, where the only thing to be found to eat, is crow, if you can trick it into letting you catch it.
Now what does he do?
3 ⭐ The Phantom Rickshaw
A man seduces another man's wife on the Peninsula and Orientation steamship, going back to India. After he uses her up, he cruelly dropped her. So she haunts him. Oh, that all user-men could in reality be done this way.
His fiancee dumps him after he tells her he is haunted by his ex-girlfriend. He has a breakdown, and while recovering, gets a letter from her. His doctor reads him part of it:
"says that a man who would have behaved to a woman as you did to Mrs wessington ought to kill himself out of sheer pity for his kind."
The sniveling man feels sorry for himself:
"why couldn't Agnes have left me alone? I never did her any harm. It might just as well have been me as agnes. Only I'd never have come back on purpose to kill her. Why can't I be left alone - left alone and happy?"
He wants us to pity him 😂
"Pity me, at least on the score of my 'delusion,' for I know you will never believe what I have written here. Yet as surely as ever a man was done to death by the Powers of Darkness I am that man.
In justice, too, pity her. For as surely as ever woman was killed by man, I killed Mrs wessington. And the last portion of my punishment is even now upon me."
2 ⭐ Gemini
Twin brothers: both money-lenders, and they hate each other. One lends money to a rich landowner, the other lends money to poor villagers. The poorer one is beaten by the landowner, thinking he is his brother. The richer one picks him up and brings him to his house, to "care" for him. But he robs him instead.
I don't feel sorry for any money lender and I think that's the moral of the story.
3 ⭐ A Wayside Comedy
A bleak look at adultery in an isolated "Station" with only two married couples and a bachelor. Men suck.
3 ⭐ At Twenty Two
A take-off on the story of Germinal (where miners die in a flooding mine shaft).
2 ⭐ The Education of Otis Yeere
These ladies of leisure, that Kipling writes of in this short story, have too much time on their hands, and spend it meddling in young men's lives. Young men most often can largely stand improvement, in my disappointed experience, so I guess they could do worse.
One seasoned meddler, Mrs Mallowe, is coaching a less seasoned meddler, Mrs Haukesbee, in how to mold a young man.
" 'I warn you,' said Mrs Mallowe, beginning to repent of her suggestion, 'that the matter is not half so easy as it looks. Any woman - even the topsham girl - can catch a man, but very, very few know how to manage him when caught.' " 🙄
3 ⭐ The Hill of Illusion
A married woman and her Sancho have decided to run away together. He comes into town and they go for a rickshaw ride, discussing final arrangements.
2 ⭐ Dray Wara Yow Dee (all three are one)
Dumb story about a guy who got cuckolded and couldn't let it go. 🙄
2 ⭐ The Judgment of Dungara (the God Dungara is the God of Things as They Are)
"ask the grey heads of the Bannockburn medical Crusade what manner of Life their preachers lead; speak to the Racine gospel agency, those lean Americans whose boast is that they go where no English man there follow; get a pastor of the tübingen mission to talk of his experiences -- if you can. you will be referred to the printed reports, but these contain no mention of the men who have lost youth and health, all that a man may lose except faith, in the wilds; of English maidens who have gone forth and died in the fever-stricken jungle of the Panth hills, knowing from the first that death was almost a certainty. Few pastors will tell you of these things anymore than they will speak of that young David of St Bees who, set apart from the Lord's work, broke down in the utter desolation, and returned half distraught to the head mission, crying, 'there is no god, but I have walked with the devil!' "
Oh, those crooked missionaries got their just desserts in this one!
2 ⭐ With the Main Guard
Some Scotch soldiers have the midnight watch on the fort at Lahore, and it's blazing hot. To distract themselves, they tell the story of a battle they destroyed the enemy in. But their accents are written so thick, that half the reading of it is trying to figure out what they're saying.
The cute part is a little 2-year-old, walking in her sleep they find by the ditch where they go to cool off when the relief guard comes at 4 am.
3 ⭐ The Flood Time
An Englishman wants to cross the River Barhwi, but it's too swollen by rains. The old Muslim crossing-keeper invites him into his hut, invites him to his hookah, to await the river going down. Meanwhile, he recounts a story from his youth, when he was having a midnight affair across the river with a Hindi widow, and a great flood in the river nearly drowned him.
The Englishman is too grumpy for the hospitality of the crossing-keeper, imo.
2 ⭐ Only a Subaltern
An English boy makes it into some famous regiment in India, that his father had been famous in before him. He rises in the ranks and is the favorite of his commanding officers. After 3 years, he gets 3 months leave in Simla, where he attends balls, etc. He gets recalled after 2 months because of an outbreak of cholera. He goes back and rallies the men under him, especially one who is drinking too much (they thought that spirits would help fight off sickness). Sad ending.
3 ⭐ Baa Baa Black Sheep
The author and his little sister, at the ages of 5 and 3, are taken to England and boarded with strangers, for what reason the reader is not told. It's a horrible place for the boy, but the girl is coddled by the woman. The husband, "Uncle Harry," is his only solace, as he takes him for long walks to the ocean and around the countryside. The couple's son is a bully to the young Kipling. "Aunty Rosa" teaches him to read, however unwillingly, and then he is able to write letters to his parents in Bombay. Best of all, he can escape his misery in books he finds in the house, and those he is sent by his father. Alas, it's also a source for Aunt Rosa's punishment:
" 'don't disturve me, I'm reading. Go and play in the kitchen,' grunted punch.' Auntie Rosa lets YOU go there.' Judy was cutting her second teeth and was fretful. she appealed to auntie rosa, who descended on punch.
'I was reading,' he explained, 'reading a book. I WANT to read.'
'you're only doing that to show off,' said auntie Rosa. 'But we'll see. Play with Judy now, and don't open a book for a week.'
Judy did not pass a very enjoyable play time with punch, who was consumed with indignation. There was a pettiness at the bottom of the prohibition which puzzled him.
'it's what I like to do,' he said, 'and she's found out that and stopped me. Don't cry, Ju -- it wasn't your fault -- please don't cry, or she'll say I made you.' "
Life gets worse and worse for the previously spoiled boy, with frequent beatings. He graduates to the name of "Black Sheep." His only solace is to read, which is frequently denied him as a punishment.
Uncle Harry dies, making life that much bleaker, and he is made to go to day-school.
The boy Harry gets him in more trouble there, encouraging boys to beat him.
After 5 years, the missing parents show up. Much damage has been done by then.
5 ⭐ At the Pit's Mouth
This is one of those stories that gives you über schadenfreude.
3 ⭐ Black Jack
The "three musketeers," soldiers from Ireland who share their ups and downs, are once again in a story. One of them recounts a tale of twelve "black Irish" soldiers who conspire to murder an officer and blame it on him, their roommate. But he overhears them planning it, and does his own conspiring.
You have to get used to the way their Irish accent is written, or you will get a headache trying to figure out what Kipling is saying.
2 ⭐ On the City Wall
Lalun, a sex worker, holds a salon in her house in the City Wall of Lahore. The narrator goes there often and meets Wali Dad, an agnostic Muslim there. From Lalun's window, you can see the Fort, where an old, famous Sikh is kept imprisoned.
On the night of a Muslim festival, the Hindus and the muslims clash, and a riot begins. Amidst the fighting, (as the troops from the fort have been called out) Khem Singh escapes, and Lalun helps him climb up the City Wall to her window. The narrator escorts him across the city, where a hired carriage awaits him.
3 ⭐ The Man Who Would be King
Pretty crazy story about two Loafers (Englishmen in India with no visible means of support), who come to the newspaperman narrator's office in the steaming hot madrugada of a June night some city in India, asking to look at maps and encyclopedias, telling him they are going to the mountain villages of afghanistan to be Kings. Three years later, same hot madrugada, same steaming June night, and a broken-down, hobbled man comes straggling into the newspaperman narrator's office and tells him their story, of finding a village of white supposed descendents of Alexander the Great, and making them their subjects.
March 2, 2024
Historia colonial-victoriana muy conocida por la película del mismo títulos con Sean Connery y Michael Cane. Me ha sorprendido que pudieran sacar un guión para una película de 2 horas de una historia de apenas 30 páginas (!) . La historia ya la conocía pero no la había leído, interesante esa tensión que transmite el autor entre la supremacía del blanco británico colonial pero al tiempo una admiración por los nativos indios. Nota importante: usé una edición anotada en inglés, hay muchas referencia a temas masónicos intercaladas y algunas expresiones que se pueden entender mal en el contexto del libro (referencias a una “madre” o cuando habla de “Martinis” no son bebidas sino los rifles Martini-Henry usados por el ejército británico a finales del XIX).
January 4, 2025
This is a review of an audiobook, an eclectic collection of Indian horror stories, adventure, humor, romance etc, from 1888 and thereabouts, when the author was in his early twenties(!). Kipling’s work here is often a striking combination of the spooky exoticism of Melville and the realistic portraiture of George Eliot. I’m not sure if all of his short stories are this good, or if the editor of this audiobook just chose exceptionally well, but these are up there with Kipling’s poetry. A quick rundown:
1) The title story is a fabulous tale about friendship, faking it till you make it, and inborn greatness. It’s obvious Kipling had just read Allan Quatermain—there’s the same Lost White Race idea. You can also see the influence of Twain, the way it’s written in a kind of vernacular poetry. This is the most famous story of the lot and rendered with a masterful hand. Like many of the stories here, it’s straightforward almost to a fault, and doesn’t quite live up to the intrigue. But the pleasure is, again, in the superior draftsmanship, which is just beautiful.
2) The Phantom ’Rickshaw: “This mood would in time give place to another where it seemed that the 'rickshaw and I were the only realities in a world of shadows.”
The main character Pansay is a sort of ancient mariner, but for lovers. His albatross is a poor woman whom he has jilted cruelly. Is he insane for seeing ghosts, or simply driven insane by ghosts? I’m partial to the theory that “there was a crack in Pansay's head and a little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death.”
3) My Own True Ghost Story: quaint anecdote with a little lesson at the end about how chance can affect our deepest beliefs.
4) The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes: this is that type of short story, like The Most Dangerous Game or The Lottery, that I guess you could call The Freaky Predicament. I kept wondering if the genre originated with Kipling. He does make reference to the “crew of the ill-fated Mignonette,” so maybe that true, survivalist story was the germ.
This story is sick, a wicked masterpiece. It’s an infernal visit to the colonialist unconscious. Note the biting repetition of the phrase “protector of the poor.” It was written when the author was 17. Unheard of…
5) The Mark of the Beast: demonic possession in the subcontinent. A drunken Brit stubs his cigar out on the image of a local monkey god and is cursed by a leper. Prefigures a number of later works, most immediately the stories of MR James.
Awesome.
6) Without Benefit of Clergy: an actual Love in the Time of Cholera story.
I hated it through the first two parts. The baby talk between the lovers is as annoying as in a Hemingway love story, but without the saving pathos. The ending, however—the aftermath—is so majestically dark that it redeemed it completely.
7) The Sending of Dana Da: Wonderful little farce about superstition and spiritualist organizations.
8) Wee Willie Winkie: “The wegiment is coming.” Very cute. An Anglo-Indian Leave It to Beaver.
9) On the City Wall: more overtly political than the other stories, and of interest for this reason. Kipling makes an excellent sketch of political and religious clashes, and of an old revolutionary. Very anti-romantic. Kipling’s storytelling methods are starting to become complex and indirect, so that you’re not exactly sure where he’s going until he pulls it all together, wonderfully, at the end.
10) The Education of Otis Yeere concerns two fashionably jaded ladies in India. Another interesting departure. The dialogue has the feel of a found object. One woman challenges herself to turn a completely unremarkable civil servant into her protégé and make of him a great man. Was this the inspiration for Shaw’s Pygmalion?
11) The Judgement of Dungara: the brief story of a Christian mission in the jungle, whose converts are scared away, Scooby Doo-style, by a heathen priest.
12) Baa Baa, Black Sheep: Story of torture and how a child’s growth is trained and twisted by torture. Based on Kipling’s years in a foster home in dour Southsea, separated from his parents and his pampered days in India. So well done, but so infuriating. I hope to God his sadistic, narrow-minded foster family had to hear about it. It was magical, though, after reading this brilliant collection, to hear the story of this great writer learning to read and discovering fiction, his only escape from misery.
Ok that’s it. Kipling’s main characters are sometimes scoundrels and hounds, but of a common sort, not cartoonishly so, and this is often relayed in asides for the astute reader. A typical example would be: “But for a crescent-shaped scar on the left cheek—the result of an accident for which I was responsible—I should never have known him.”
Again and again the author shows great insight into human nature and behavior. Though his pictures of life in the empire complicate modern anti-colonial narratives, the stories here of loutish Englishmen are, if anything, bordering on didacticism. For all you hear against him, Kipling has always come across to me in his work like nothing so much as a real mensch. His kindness may be stripped of sentimentality, but it’s the genuine article.
1) The title story is a fabulous tale about friendship, faking it till you make it, and inborn greatness. It’s obvious Kipling had just read Allan Quatermain—there’s the same Lost White Race idea. You can also see the influence of Twain, the way it’s written in a kind of vernacular poetry. This is the most famous story of the lot and rendered with a masterful hand. Like many of the stories here, it’s straightforward almost to a fault, and doesn’t quite live up to the intrigue. But the pleasure is, again, in the superior draftsmanship, which is just beautiful.
2) The Phantom ’Rickshaw: “This mood would in time give place to another where it seemed that the 'rickshaw and I were the only realities in a world of shadows.”
The main character Pansay is a sort of ancient mariner, but for lovers. His albatross is a poor woman whom he has jilted cruelly. Is he insane for seeing ghosts, or simply driven insane by ghosts? I’m partial to the theory that “there was a crack in Pansay's head and a little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death.”
3) My Own True Ghost Story: quaint anecdote with a little lesson at the end about how chance can affect our deepest beliefs.
4) The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes: this is that type of short story, like The Most Dangerous Game or The Lottery, that I guess you could call The Freaky Predicament. I kept wondering if the genre originated with Kipling. He does make reference to the “crew of the ill-fated Mignonette,” so maybe that true, survivalist story was the germ.
This story is sick, a wicked masterpiece. It’s an infernal visit to the colonialist unconscious. Note the biting repetition of the phrase “protector of the poor.” It was written when the author was 17. Unheard of…
5) The Mark of the Beast: demonic possession in the subcontinent. A drunken Brit stubs his cigar out on the image of a local monkey god and is cursed by a leper. Prefigures a number of later works, most immediately the stories of MR James.
Awesome.
6) Without Benefit of Clergy: an actual Love in the Time of Cholera story.
I hated it through the first two parts. The baby talk between the lovers is as annoying as in a Hemingway love story, but without the saving pathos. The ending, however—the aftermath—is so majestically dark that it redeemed it completely.
7) The Sending of Dana Da: Wonderful little farce about superstition and spiritualist organizations.
8) Wee Willie Winkie: “The wegiment is coming.” Very cute. An Anglo-Indian Leave It to Beaver.
9) On the City Wall: more overtly political than the other stories, and of interest for this reason. Kipling makes an excellent sketch of political and religious clashes, and of an old revolutionary. Very anti-romantic. Kipling’s storytelling methods are starting to become complex and indirect, so that you’re not exactly sure where he’s going until he pulls it all together, wonderfully, at the end.
10) The Education of Otis Yeere concerns two fashionably jaded ladies in India. Another interesting departure. The dialogue has the feel of a found object. One woman challenges herself to turn a completely unremarkable civil servant into her protégé and make of him a great man. Was this the inspiration for Shaw’s Pygmalion?
11) The Judgement of Dungara: the brief story of a Christian mission in the jungle, whose converts are scared away, Scooby Doo-style, by a heathen priest.
12) Baa Baa, Black Sheep: Story of torture and how a child’s growth is trained and twisted by torture. Based on Kipling’s years in a foster home in dour Southsea, separated from his parents and his pampered days in India. So well done, but so infuriating. I hope to God his sadistic, narrow-minded foster family had to hear about it. It was magical, though, after reading this brilliant collection, to hear the story of this great writer learning to read and discovering fiction, his only escape from misery.
Ok that’s it. Kipling’s main characters are sometimes scoundrels and hounds, but of a common sort, not cartoonishly so, and this is often relayed in asides for the astute reader. A typical example would be: “But for a crescent-shaped scar on the left cheek—the result of an accident for which I was responsible—I should never have known him.”
Again and again the author shows great insight into human nature and behavior. Though his pictures of life in the empire complicate modern anti-colonial narratives, the stories here of loutish Englishmen are, if anything, bordering on didacticism. For all you hear against him, Kipling has always come across to me in his work like nothing so much as a real mensch. His kindness may be stripped of sentimentality, but it’s the genuine article.
December 22, 2022
I did not enjoy this one.
Read
July 5, 2024Ando buscando más libros de este escritor. Yo creí que no me gustaban las historias de aventuras, pero me dejé llevar y sí que lo recomiendo.
March 12, 2025
I hate Kipling but his writing is fascinating
July 11, 2022
A mixed bag but pulled together with great narration.
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