Short Stories: volume 1: A Sahib's War and Other Stories

by Rudyard Kipling, Andrew Rutherford (Editor)

Of the two volumes, A Sahib's War and Other Stories and Friendly Brook and Other Stories, Professor Rutherford, who selected the contents of both volumes, writes: 'There are fewer tales of Empire than the popular stereotype of Kipling might lead readers to expect....Increasingly he was preoccupied by the condition of England herself, as he rebuked her blindness, folly and complacency, and sought reassurance in groups, types, or individuals who might still redeem her backslidings.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1977

About the author

Joseph 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."

Reviews

[Kidlitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kipling is as infuriating and dated as ever in his biases and preoccupations, but no one anthropomorphizes as he does and I would wade through another volume of his writings to encounter a bee or rat or cat of his making. Why are his animals so much wiser than his humans? Why is he capable of so much twaddle but then produces an image that tears the heart into pieces? I put him on the shelf where goes Saki and Buchan and Barrie and Lawrence and the other Edwardians who are so problematic. They wrote some awfully good stuff that peers into the future with a combination of fear and humor, putting aside the racist, sexist and classist claptrap. And they all took childhood seriously as its own important, hugely formative time of life, recognizing it never really leaves us. I place Nesbit and Mansfield on their own higher plane because they were even more remarkable to forge the careers they made not despite their womanhood, but because of it. And neither of them were the prejudiced snobs their male peers were!

[Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

مجموعة قصص عن ما شاهده وعاشه روديارد في الهند
فهو (انجليزي - هندي ).
تحدث عن الرجل البسيط و عن استعمار التاج البريطاني لدولة كانت تعتبر قارة ( الهند كانت تتكون من الهند - باكستان- بنغلادش).

وجهة نظري المتواضعة هناك مشكلة في الترجمة فليست سلسلة.

[Tarek Azad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun read that shouldn't be taken too seriously

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kipling is an interesting writer. "'They'" was a pretty neat story about a haunting. "Below the Mill Dam" was about nazism and racial purity, I'm pretty sure. While "The Mother Hive" was about the 'horrors' of free thinking and (I'm guessing most likely) communism. "As Easy as A.B.C." was a very strange sci-fi that I was not expecting out of Kipling, set in 2065, I believe, and he had the imagination to create a machine in the future that collects trash off the streets and converts it to glass, but lacked the imagination to believe that the future would be without racism. Well, actually I take that back because, as I understood the tale, it seemed like all the — and yes, Kipling uses this word a lot — "'n'words" were irradicated because at some point in time they began to gather and create mobs. The people of the future had freed themselves of the 'plague of 'n words'' but not the memory and still vilified them. The city of Chicago had this ominous statue of a black man burning to death in flames to serve as some sort of warning to the people of 2065 of the errors of 'the group'. The gist of the tale seemed to denounce 'The People' or 'the group' or really any gathering of people and really sort of glorified the individual. It was strangely anti-dystopic and without a far reaching scope.
Truthfully, I enjoy Kipling's style and I love his animal fiction/narratives, but after reading this I don't know if the ideas behind his writing are too lofty for me and my 21st century ideas, or if they're just opaque with anachronism, either way I didn't understand a whole lot. Next!

[John]

fiction