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The Light That Failed
Rudyard Kipling foi um dos escritores mais populares da Inglaterra. Laureado com o Prêmio Nobel de Literatura de 1907, tornou-se o primeiro autor de língua inglesa a receber esse prêmio sendo, até hoje, o mais jovem escritor a recebê-lo.A obra A luz que se apagou, foi publicado pela primeira vez em 1891 e narra a vida de Dick Heldar, um artista e pintor que fica cego, e seu amor não correspondido por sua colega de infância, Maisie. É o primeiro romance de Kipling, escrito quando ele tinha 26 anos, sendo baseado em seu próprio amor não correspondido por Florence Garrard. A Luz que se Apagou teve excelente recepção do público no lançamento e tem sido republicado com sucesso há mais de um século. Ganhou também adaptações para o teatro e cinema.
259 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1891
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1361 people want to read
About the author
Rudyard Kipling
7,210 books3,733 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
April 18, 2023
Редьярд Киплинг, прекрасный писатель, написал роман о художнике, потерявшем зрение в результате старой травмы головы в ходе военной кампании в Африке. Как водится, герой благороден, богат, влюблен, чист и честен, но вот так сложились обстоятельства. Перед самой потерей зрения, превозмогая пьянством блики и круги перед глазами, он написал свою самую лучшую работу «Меланхолию». Он едва успел насладиться ее созерцанием, как тут же потерял зрение, и он не узнал, что тупая и злобная служанка, служившая моделью, скипидаром смыла и ножом соскребла краски. Его друг был к нему добр, но ушел на войну. Его возлюбленная пришла к нему после потери зрения, но она была свободная художница, у нее были свои планы на карьеру, и она ничего ему не обещала, и вообще у них был один довольно целомудренный поцелуй. Она не стала посвящать свою жизнь ему. Он встречает ту самую служанку в парке, и деликатный хозяин квартиры, в которой он проживал, оставил их наедине. Бедная девушка сразу оценила возможности, которые дарует ей возможность ухаживать за ним – обеспеченная жизнь, наряды, как у дам, и почти никакой работы. Наш герой почти воспрял духом, и начал чувствовать и радоваться, что кому-то небезразлично, как он выглядит. Но тут глупая служанка сделала еще одну глупость – рассказала ему о своей подлой выходке. И тут он понял, что ему хотелось бы больше всего. Он написал завещание в пользу своей возлюбленной, сжег свои этюды и картины, дал 100 фунтов служанке и уехал на фронт к другу. Там добрая пуля почти мгновенно после встречи с другом милосердно убила его. Так и закончилась жизнь автора уничтоженного шедевра. Сентиментально, грустно и благородно.
October 8, 2019
I enjoyed this one, though not quite as much as Kim. The characters are very intriguing and some of the themes it deals with, especially around unrequited love, art and loss of sight, are really interesting. However, I found the ending (indeed, both endings, for it has an alternative one as well as the original) a little disappointing - it didn't quite live up to the rest of the book.
June 18, 2023
I first read this book, Kipling’s first novel, over forty years ago as a fifteen year old kid. I only knew Kipling at the time through a Classics Illustrated comic of Kim. I saw his name, and arbitrarily grabbed it off our home bookshelf so I could have something to keep me busy in study hall. What I discovered was the perfect tale for a young man with a bent toward tragic romance. Adventure in a war zone, starving artists struggling for success, comaraderie between manly men, a tragic, unrequited love story, and a darkly tragic ending all zapped my young brain just so.
Rereading it as a much more grizzled and cynical adult all these years later it held up remarkably well. The unrequited love story is a bit over the top for modern readers, but still works, possibly because the young Kipling was drawing from his own experience. The characters are engaging, and Kipling’s writing is superb, even at this early stage of his career. Glad that I chose to reread it.
Rereading it as a much more grizzled and cynical adult all these years later it held up remarkably well. The unrequited love story is a bit over the top for modern readers, but still works, possibly because the young Kipling was drawing from his own experience. The characters are engaging, and Kipling’s writing is superb, even at this early stage of his career. Glad that I chose to reread it.
July 13, 2011
After seminary graduation and moving my possessions back from New York City to Illinois, I was invited to visit Norway by family there, my first visit since 1962. Most of the time I stayed with Mother in her apartment in the Majorstua neighborhood in Oslo, not far from Vigland Park.
Arriving, travelling light, I found little to read. Mom hadn't been long back in her homeland and, except for some John Jakes novels, most of her books were in Norwegian. One exception was a bunch of old Rudyard Kipling novels which I presumed she had gotten from her stepfather, Fin Graff, who had been raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin before the suicide of his father, Dr. Harald Graff, and the separation of his family, he being sent back to relatives in Norway, his brother (my paternal grandfather) and sister being raised by their mother in the States.
Except for Kipling's children's stories, I only knew him as a poet whose work celebrated British imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I didn't want to read him! But, until I got to know the neighborhood and find the good bookstores carrying English titles, I had little choice.
The Light That Failed was completely unknown to me. A quick perusal showed it wasn't primarily about lording it over the darkies in India, so I selected that volume and lay down in my room to read.
I was amazed! Not only could Kipling plot well and write beautifully, his characterizations were actually believable. I became captivated by the love story at its heart and anguished tearfully with the protagonist.
I may have finished the book over the course of one night, perhaps two. It was hard to put down.
Arriving, travelling light, I found little to read. Mom hadn't been long back in her homeland and, except for some John Jakes novels, most of her books were in Norwegian. One exception was a bunch of old Rudyard Kipling novels which I presumed she had gotten from her stepfather, Fin Graff, who had been raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin before the suicide of his father, Dr. Harald Graff, and the separation of his family, he being sent back to relatives in Norway, his brother (my paternal grandfather) and sister being raised by their mother in the States.
Except for Kipling's children's stories, I only knew him as a poet whose work celebrated British imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I didn't want to read him! But, until I got to know the neighborhood and find the good bookstores carrying English titles, I had little choice.
The Light That Failed was completely unknown to me. A quick perusal showed it wasn't primarily about lording it over the darkies in India, so I selected that volume and lay down in my room to read.
I was amazed! Not only could Kipling plot well and write beautifully, his characterizations were actually believable. I became captivated by the love story at its heart and anguished tearfully with the protagonist.
I may have finished the book over the course of one night, perhaps two. It was hard to put down.
May 8, 2013
Oh, the works that get passed over. Some of the greatest work of the greatest authors is ignored because it's missing some of the charm of their more popular works. Rudyard Kipling may be known best for The Jungle Book, Kim, and Captain Courageous, but he possessed a deeper observation of the world than just the adventures palatable to children. The Earth he lived on was full of failures, darkness, and pain, and any man given to the arts has the tools to express what he's seen.
The Light That Failed is just such a book. I originally picked it up off a corner bookshelf in an obscure bookstore in my hometown (the 1910 Art Type edition; I absolutely adore it) and only bought it for the author's name. However, after a year of trying to find time to read it and constant interruptions, I was able to immerse myself in the story and see the real beauty and skill that Kipling is famous for.
The book tells the story of two orphans, Dick and Maisie, who form a naive childhood relationship while under foster care before going out into the world. Dick goes abroad and to war, and Maisie goes to France for her education. The book skips forward about ten years, and we find Dick a talented artist who is injured in combat and sent home to London. There, in a chance meeting, he finds Maisie again, who has grown into a beautiful young woman with the same airy charm he remembers, and he renews his love for her. They are both artists, and he instructs her in a competitive way, but his unrequited love for her tortures the relationship. Then, to his horror and disbelief, Dick finds himself going blind from an old wound and must deal with the repercussions.
The primary attraction is the beautiful prose. Kipling is best known for his command of the English language, simultaneously making us snort with laughter and ponder what it means, turning us to and fro with quick but thoughtful words. Few other authors show his sense of humor in tandem with heavier thoughts. The Light That Failed is definitely of a different breed than his other works, but it is not out of character nor his style.
That being said, the symbolism is thick here. The concept of Dick being essentially castrated and removed from life by the old wounds of war is something that translated to today's soldiers (PTSD, anyone?) and Kipling's distaste for Britain's foreign involvements is clear. Of course, he takes a good-natured English stab at the French by his descriptions of the ridiculous art instructor Kami, but the serious current of concern runs beneath. Distance separates Dick from everything he loves, and even when he tries to go back, nothing is the same ever again after being exposed to the world.
The title is twofold: both literal, for his blindness, and for disappointed hopes.
Beware: this book is a tearjerker in some places. Kipling holds no details back when going down the disappointed hopes vein. He clearly believes that our efforts, no matter how much talent or time backs them, can still result in nothing when faced by the whims of the world. This fits perfectly in line with the sentiment of the time— the fin de siecle era was full of decadent and disenchanted modernist writers— but it is nonetheless upsetting to those who are looking for hope. In particular, the scene where Maisie finally visits Dick after his blindness completely takes over is moving. Kipling uses the full power of detached observance and vivid adjectives to convey how pathetically we can decline when struck by powers that we cannot understand.
In line with one of my other absolute favorite books, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, The Light That Failed has been passed over with time. That's terrible unfortunate, because I would contend that this is a landmark in the modernist movement and one of the better novels I have read from that era. Brief, poignant, and deeply felt, Kipling has given us a moment in time that we've all felt: something is irretrievably lost.
Because it's not popular, this novel is available for as little as $3.99 on the Kindle or $9.41 in paperback from Amazon. Or, believe it or not, it's cheaper on the Barnes & Noble Nook for $1.99. Your library is likely to have a copy because it's been 113 years since this book first appeared, but I would highly recommend buying yourself a copy. This book will not take you a long time to read, but I suspect it will hang around in your thoughts for quite some time after.
The Light That Failed is just such a book. I originally picked it up off a corner bookshelf in an obscure bookstore in my hometown (the 1910 Art Type edition; I absolutely adore it) and only bought it for the author's name. However, after a year of trying to find time to read it and constant interruptions, I was able to immerse myself in the story and see the real beauty and skill that Kipling is famous for.
The book tells the story of two orphans, Dick and Maisie, who form a naive childhood relationship while under foster care before going out into the world. Dick goes abroad and to war, and Maisie goes to France for her education. The book skips forward about ten years, and we find Dick a talented artist who is injured in combat and sent home to London. There, in a chance meeting, he finds Maisie again, who has grown into a beautiful young woman with the same airy charm he remembers, and he renews his love for her. They are both artists, and he instructs her in a competitive way, but his unrequited love for her tortures the relationship. Then, to his horror and disbelief, Dick finds himself going blind from an old wound and must deal with the repercussions.
The primary attraction is the beautiful prose. Kipling is best known for his command of the English language, simultaneously making us snort with laughter and ponder what it means, turning us to and fro with quick but thoughtful words. Few other authors show his sense of humor in tandem with heavier thoughts. The Light That Failed is definitely of a different breed than his other works, but it is not out of character nor his style.
That being said, the symbolism is thick here. The concept of Dick being essentially castrated and removed from life by the old wounds of war is something that translated to today's soldiers (PTSD, anyone?) and Kipling's distaste for Britain's foreign involvements is clear. Of course, he takes a good-natured English stab at the French by his descriptions of the ridiculous art instructor Kami, but the serious current of concern runs beneath. Distance separates Dick from everything he loves, and even when he tries to go back, nothing is the same ever again after being exposed to the world.
The title is twofold: both literal, for his blindness, and for disappointed hopes.
Beware: this book is a tearjerker in some places. Kipling holds no details back when going down the disappointed hopes vein. He clearly believes that our efforts, no matter how much talent or time backs them, can still result in nothing when faced by the whims of the world. This fits perfectly in line with the sentiment of the time— the fin de siecle era was full of decadent and disenchanted modernist writers— but it is nonetheless upsetting to those who are looking for hope. In particular, the scene where Maisie finally visits Dick after his blindness completely takes over is moving. Kipling uses the full power of detached observance and vivid adjectives to convey how pathetically we can decline when struck by powers that we cannot understand.
In line with one of my other absolute favorite books, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, The Light That Failed has been passed over with time. That's terrible unfortunate, because I would contend that this is a landmark in the modernist movement and one of the better novels I have read from that era. Brief, poignant, and deeply felt, Kipling has given us a moment in time that we've all felt: something is irretrievably lost.
Because it's not popular, this novel is available for as little as $3.99 on the Kindle or $9.41 in paperback from Amazon. Or, believe it or not, it's cheaper on the Barnes & Noble Nook for $1.99. Your library is likely to have a copy because it's been 113 years since this book first appeared, but I would highly recommend buying yourself a copy. This book will not take you a long time to read, but I suspect it will hang around in your thoughts for quite some time after.
March 13, 2014
The Light That Failed took me into a different realm of Kipling's writing. It's the tale of an artist who draws what he sees of war, and then, as his eyesight is failing, sets out to complete his Melancholia.
I won't give any more spoilers than that, except to say that his portrayals of the friendships he experiences with both men and women are still very moving to me.
I won't give any more spoilers than that, except to say that his portrayals of the friendships he experiences with both men and women are still very moving to me.
August 21, 2014
19 AUG 2014 -- recommended to me by Cheryl, Dagny, and Karen while reading The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason (find it here, among lots of other places on the web -- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18883.)
A free download of The Light That Failed may be found:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2876
Chap. 1 -- opening sentences --
'WHAT do you think she'd do if she caught us? We oughtn't to have it, you know,' said Maisie.
'Beat me, and lock you up in your bedroom,' Dick answered, without hesitation. 'Have you got the cartridges?'
'Yes; they're in my pocket, but they are joggling horribly. Do pin-fire cartridges go off of their own accord?'
'Don't know. Take the revolver, if you are afraid, and let me carry them.'
'I'm not afraid.' Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air. Dick followed with a small pin-fire revolver.
And more to do with the cartridges:
'I know it has gone out to the Marazion Bell-buoy,' said Dick, with a chuckle. 'Fire low and to the left; then perhaps you'll get it. Oh, look at Amomma!—he's eating the cartridges!'
Maisie turned, the revolver in her hand, just in time to see Amomma scampering away from the pebbles Dick threw after him. Nothing is sacred to a billy-goat. Being well fed and the adored of his mistress, Amomma had naturally swallowed two loaded pin-fire cartridges. Maisie hurried up to assure herself that Dick had not miscounted the tale.
'Yes, he's eaten two.'
'Horrid little beast! Then they'll joggle about inside him and blow up, and serve him right.... Oh, Dick! have I killed you?'
Silly goat.
21 AUG 2014 -- this book left me with more questions than satisfaction. Were Maisie and the red-haired girl in a lesbian relationship? Might Turpenhow and Dick have engaged in a homosexual relationship? Does "the light that failed" refer to both Dick's lost sight and the loss of love for Maisie? No soldier would have endangered his fellow soldiers to have returned sightless to the battlefield - his fellow soldiers' focus would be with him and not on the focus of war and staying alive. Parts felt so real and others implausible. But, in the end, I enjoyed The Light That Failed.
A free download of The Light That Failed may be found:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2876
Chap. 1 -- opening sentences --
'WHAT do you think she'd do if she caught us? We oughtn't to have it, you know,' said Maisie.
'Beat me, and lock you up in your bedroom,' Dick answered, without hesitation. 'Have you got the cartridges?'
'Yes; they're in my pocket, but they are joggling horribly. Do pin-fire cartridges go off of their own accord?'
'Don't know. Take the revolver, if you are afraid, and let me carry them.'
'I'm not afraid.' Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air. Dick followed with a small pin-fire revolver.
And more to do with the cartridges:
'I know it has gone out to the Marazion Bell-buoy,' said Dick, with a chuckle. 'Fire low and to the left; then perhaps you'll get it. Oh, look at Amomma!—he's eating the cartridges!'
Maisie turned, the revolver in her hand, just in time to see Amomma scampering away from the pebbles Dick threw after him. Nothing is sacred to a billy-goat. Being well fed and the adored of his mistress, Amomma had naturally swallowed two loaded pin-fire cartridges. Maisie hurried up to assure herself that Dick had not miscounted the tale.
'Yes, he's eaten two.'
'Horrid little beast! Then they'll joggle about inside him and blow up, and serve him right.... Oh, Dick! have I killed you?'
Silly goat.
21 AUG 2014 -- this book left me with more questions than satisfaction. Were Maisie and the red-haired girl in a lesbian relationship? Might Turpenhow and Dick have engaged in a homosexual relationship? Does "the light that failed" refer to both Dick's lost sight and the loss of love for Maisie? No soldier would have endangered his fellow soldiers to have returned sightless to the battlefield - his fellow soldiers' focus would be with him and not on the focus of war and staying alive. Parts felt so real and others implausible. But, in the end, I enjoyed The Light That Failed.
May 23, 2012
I assumed I wouldn't like this, just another boring, over-written 19th century novel. It was in a faded red, cloth-bound, one-volume collection of Kipling's works published by Black's Readers Service in 1928. The book was on a shelf next to the cot in the room I was staying at. I had nothing else to read and I had time with nothing to do, so I began reading, and before I knew it I was utterly drawn into the story, the world and the life it depicted. It was not boring and certainly not over-written.
In fact, the writing was direct and vivid.
Setting a scene: "A thin grey fog hung over the city and the streets were very cold, for summer was in England."
Portraying a character's mood and attitude: "I have my own matches and sulfur and I'll make my own hell."
Describing a picture: "Your paintings smell of tobacco and blood. Can't you do anything except soldiers?"
Depicting the smoke from black-powder-cartridge-firing rifles during a skirmish: "Gradually the scattered white cloudlets drew out into long lines of banked white that hung heavily in the stillness of the dawn before they turned over wave-like and glided into the valleys."
George Orwell once called Kipling a good second-rate author. I beg to differ. He is certainly good, but there is nothing second-rate about him.
One thing I like about reading novels from past centuries is how they sometimes reveal in casual, unintended ways what it was like to be alive then. In one scene in "Light," for example, Kipling is describing the emotional disorientation of the protagonist as he copes with going blind, and he writes, "there are noises under the sea, and sounds overhead in a clear sky." That is effective description--but it made me think that it was more effective in 1890 than today: today we hear sounds in a clear sky all the time; in fact, sometimes the clear sky can be intolerably noisy. And we know, if we haven't heard ourselves, that the sea is full of noisy marine life, not to mention the throb of ship propellers.
But in Kipling's time, the only sound to come from the sky was thunder, ships sailed the sea under canvass silently, and what was below was unknown.
Good story, well written, thought-provoking, grim and sad.
In fact, the writing was direct and vivid.
Setting a scene: "A thin grey fog hung over the city and the streets were very cold, for summer was in England."
Portraying a character's mood and attitude: "I have my own matches and sulfur and I'll make my own hell."
Describing a picture: "Your paintings smell of tobacco and blood. Can't you do anything except soldiers?"
Depicting the smoke from black-powder-cartridge-firing rifles during a skirmish: "Gradually the scattered white cloudlets drew out into long lines of banked white that hung heavily in the stillness of the dawn before they turned over wave-like and glided into the valleys."
George Orwell once called Kipling a good second-rate author. I beg to differ. He is certainly good, but there is nothing second-rate about him.
One thing I like about reading novels from past centuries is how they sometimes reveal in casual, unintended ways what it was like to be alive then. In one scene in "Light," for example, Kipling is describing the emotional disorientation of the protagonist as he copes with going blind, and he writes, "there are noises under the sea, and sounds overhead in a clear sky." That is effective description--but it made me think that it was more effective in 1890 than today: today we hear sounds in a clear sky all the time; in fact, sometimes the clear sky can be intolerably noisy. And we know, if we haven't heard ourselves, that the sea is full of noisy marine life, not to mention the throb of ship propellers.
But in Kipling's time, the only sound to come from the sky was thunder, ships sailed the sea under canvass silently, and what was below was unknown.
Good story, well written, thought-provoking, grim and sad.
September 6, 2015
This is a story about two friends Dick and Maisie who drift apart from each other after one of the friends leave to go to Paris to go to school. They reunite ten years later both working as artists. One is a war artist and the other one is studying under the teacher Kami, a teacher Dick had learned his craft from for ten years. Will the two friends continue to be friends or will Dick's romantic feelings end their friendship? Read on and find out for yourself.
This was my first ever read by Rudyard Kipling and I enjoyed it. It was a pretty good and sad story about friends and what happens when you lose them due to petty pride for their career If you like this time of story about art and more, definitely check this book out. It is available at your local library and wherever books are sold.
This was my first ever read by Rudyard Kipling and I enjoyed it. It was a pretty good and sad story about friends and what happens when you lose them due to petty pride for their career If you like this time of story about art and more, definitely check this book out. It is available at your local library and wherever books are sold.
September 18, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.
One of Kipling's most interesting novels, The Light that Failed hovers on the edge of sentimentality for most of its pages, never quite slipping. Dick Heldar is an artist, who becomes successful through drawings of a war in Sudan for one of the London newspapers - this being in the days before photographs filled the newspapers. Returning to London, he begins to work as a serious artist, and re-encounters his childhood playmate, Maisie, and falls in love with her. Just as he begins work on what is to be his masterpiece, he has to seek medical advice for a problem with his eyes and is told that he is going blind, incurably, as a result of the after affects of a head wound received in the Sudan.
In the original published version of the story, The Light that Failed ended here, with Maisie marrying Dick to look after him. Kipling later changed this, saying that he was restoring the story to what he had always wanted it to be, and wrote a much longer ending (about a third of the novel as it now stands) in which Maisie abandons Dick and leaves him to sink into squalor. The original ending is trite and sentimental, and the novel as it now stands has far greater power.
The Light that Failed works because of the way it is written, with the contrast between the high spirits of a group of bachelor friends in the first half, and the serious theme of the second. Both parts are extremely well written, the earlier part being like the more cheerful army stories or parts of the Jungle Book. It is carefree, and this makes Dick's physical disintegration in the second half more powerful.
The novel is not really a particularly deep one; its concern is more with Dick's physical dissolution than with an in depth analysis of his psychology and the effects of his blindness. By leaving this to the imagination of the reader, it is extraordinarily effective, while remaining easy to read.
One of Kipling's most interesting novels, The Light that Failed hovers on the edge of sentimentality for most of its pages, never quite slipping. Dick Heldar is an artist, who becomes successful through drawings of a war in Sudan for one of the London newspapers - this being in the days before photographs filled the newspapers. Returning to London, he begins to work as a serious artist, and re-encounters his childhood playmate, Maisie, and falls in love with her. Just as he begins work on what is to be his masterpiece, he has to seek medical advice for a problem with his eyes and is told that he is going blind, incurably, as a result of the after affects of a head wound received in the Sudan.
In the original published version of the story, The Light that Failed ended here, with Maisie marrying Dick to look after him. Kipling later changed this, saying that he was restoring the story to what he had always wanted it to be, and wrote a much longer ending (about a third of the novel as it now stands) in which Maisie abandons Dick and leaves him to sink into squalor. The original ending is trite and sentimental, and the novel as it now stands has far greater power.
The Light that Failed works because of the way it is written, with the contrast between the high spirits of a group of bachelor friends in the first half, and the serious theme of the second. Both parts are extremely well written, the earlier part being like the more cheerful army stories or parts of the Jungle Book. It is carefree, and this makes Dick's physical disintegration in the second half more powerful.
The novel is not really a particularly deep one; its concern is more with Dick's physical dissolution than with an in depth analysis of his psychology and the effects of his blindness. By leaving this to the imagination of the reader, it is extraordinarily effective, while remaining easy to read.
March 26, 2017
This is an elegiac novel about talented young man seemingly destined for great things whom fate suddenly deals a number of crushing blows. While Kipling is typically thought of as being a booster of the Imperial enterprise, there is little rejoicing in "The Light that Failed" about Britain's success as a colonial power. The hero in this novel dies a miserable death far from England in a nasty corner of the glorious Empire. In this regard, the book is very Conradian. It is tremendously downbeat but very intelligent.
August 30, 2020
Really boring and long. The main character Dick is unbearable and the rest of the characters dull and plain. A failure reading
December 22, 2025
The ending is stupid. I knew it would be, but that doesn’t make it less stupid. (um, POOR TORPENHOW???) If Kipling had been…I don’t even know if I want to say less ableist, just less post-Christian-depressed-Victorian-Englishman, you know?…he could have written a story about Dick finding a way to do valuable work despite his new disability and Torpenhow being The Best Friend A Man Could Ask For. (I loved Torpenhow. Kipling’s depiction of close male friendship is always incredibly acute and I wish he focused on it more.) It could have been a story about God’s severe grace—if Kipling believed in grace. (That’s the problem.)
It’s amazing, though, how a novel that, if you describe the plot, sounds overdramatic to the point of stupidity, could still make me invested. Kipling at his worst (and earliest) is still a writer of rare fluidity, power, and acumen. When I read his writing, I ache with jealousy. I want to write like that and I never will.
But anyway, the ending was stupid. #JusticeForTorpenhow
It’s amazing, though, how a novel that, if you describe the plot, sounds overdramatic to the point of stupidity, could still make me invested. Kipling at his worst (and earliest) is still a writer of rare fluidity, power, and acumen. When I read his writing, I ache with jealousy. I want to write like that and I never will.
But anyway, the ending was stupid. #JusticeForTorpenhow
February 17, 2026
The Light That Failed is a vivid, high-stakes look at the resilience of the human spirit. Kipling’s prose is sharp and his portrayal of an artist’s obsession is deeply moving. However, while the grit and atmosphere are impressive, I found it a bit hard to fully lose myself in the narrative; there was a slight emotional distance that kept me from being as immersed as I expected.
That said, it remains a powerful, dignified story about facing one's fate head-on.
That said, it remains a powerful, dignified story about facing one's fate head-on.
December 25, 2023
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Rudyard Kipling is best known for writing Gunga Din, The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would Be King. The Light That Failed is another enduring classic written in 1890. It was adapted into stage and radio plays and a hit film starring Ronald Coleman in 1939. It tells the story of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind. Most synopsis have Dick trying to become a famous painter to win the heart of his childhood sweetheart Maisie.
Sounds romantic, but it's not the novel Kipling wrote.
Dick and Maisie grew up in the same care home, and pledge to always be friends. In his youth Dick goes to war, sketching scenes around him as they travel up the Nile to Khartoum. He befriends a war correspondent who sends the sketches to London, and when Dick returns home, he's surprised to find he is a sought-after artist. Enjoying his new found money, he shares rooms with his wartime friends and squanders his talent. One day he happens to meet Maisie again, independent and also an artist. A lot of time is spent with Dick judging her work and talking about art. Suddenly, Dick goes blind. In his frustration, he reaches out to Maisie, who leaves him thinking he has gone mad. His friends go off to another war - left alone, he's taken advantage of and left unclean and malnourished. In an attempt to return to life, he embarks on a perilous journey - by train, car, boat, horse - to join his friends at the front in Sudan.
I was lucky to find a nice Triangle Books hardcover with a dustjacket that states it's 'his most famous novel - the haunting love story'. There is a friendship with Maisie, but he annoys her by criticizing her art, at one point offering to paint a picture she could sign, as he is far more accomplished. A romance never really happens, and any build up abruptly ends halfway through the novel with the simple line "and that is the end of Maisie". He wastes his time and money before trying for a last great masterpiece as blindness sets in. In 1890, he could be seen as a romantic figure by swooning girls, but he is too self centred to be endearing. Various incarnations over the years may alter the story for effect, and it's possible that charming Ronald Colman dispels any doubt Dick is a romantic hero. Recommended for lovers of classic novel and adventure - hard to believe it was written 127 years ago!
Rudyard Kipling is best known for writing Gunga Din, The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would Be King. The Light That Failed is another enduring classic written in 1890. It was adapted into stage and radio plays and a hit film starring Ronald Coleman in 1939. It tells the story of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind. Most synopsis have Dick trying to become a famous painter to win the heart of his childhood sweetheart Maisie.
Sounds romantic, but it's not the novel Kipling wrote.
Dick and Maisie grew up in the same care home, and pledge to always be friends. In his youth Dick goes to war, sketching scenes around him as they travel up the Nile to Khartoum. He befriends a war correspondent who sends the sketches to London, and when Dick returns home, he's surprised to find he is a sought-after artist. Enjoying his new found money, he shares rooms with his wartime friends and squanders his talent. One day he happens to meet Maisie again, independent and also an artist. A lot of time is spent with Dick judging her work and talking about art. Suddenly, Dick goes blind. In his frustration, he reaches out to Maisie, who leaves him thinking he has gone mad. His friends go off to another war - left alone, he's taken advantage of and left unclean and malnourished. In an attempt to return to life, he embarks on a perilous journey - by train, car, boat, horse - to join his friends at the front in Sudan.
I was lucky to find a nice Triangle Books hardcover with a dustjacket that states it's 'his most famous novel - the haunting love story'. There is a friendship with Maisie, but he annoys her by criticizing her art, at one point offering to paint a picture she could sign, as he is far more accomplished. A romance never really happens, and any build up abruptly ends halfway through the novel with the simple line "and that is the end of Maisie". He wastes his time and money before trying for a last great masterpiece as blindness sets in. In 1890, he could be seen as a romantic figure by swooning girls, but he is too self centred to be endearing. Various incarnations over the years may alter the story for effect, and it's possible that charming Ronald Colman dispels any doubt Dick is a romantic hero. Recommended for lovers of classic novel and adventure - hard to believe it was written 127 years ago!
January 16, 2021
I decided to read this after watching the 1939 film on Youtube (currently unavailable in the UK on dvd) - a film which is pretty faithful to the book. Kipling's language is of its time, so sometimes jars with modern sensibilities, especially with regard to racist terms, but I don't believe his writing should be dismissed on that basis. We might dismiss a whole host of writers from the past on this basis. However, the reader should ideally be aware of the historic context of the writing. Kipling is out of vogue nowadays, but he wrote some brilliant poetry and his novels give us a contemporary insight into the imperial British past, including some of its unpleasant aspects.
This novel has its charms, although it plumbs some unsavoury depths. I enjoyed the portrayal of friendship between men. I also enjoyed the relationships between humans and animals - Amomma, the goat, and Binkie, the dog, are clearly a source of comfort to the humans. The contrasting values of Maisie and Bessie were interesting. I was torn between loathing and sympathy for both these characters, which is, I suspect, what the writer was aiming at, though at times I detected a rather patronising tone towards the female characters.
Kipling's poetic abilities occasionally shine through and impress - for instance, the repeated references back to a yellow sea poppy as a remembered image, and the descriptions of the experience of blindness.
A gem of a book really, as despite its problematic aspects and some desperately sad scenarios, it has much charm, although much of the humour is dry.
This novel has its charms, although it plumbs some unsavoury depths. I enjoyed the portrayal of friendship between men. I also enjoyed the relationships between humans and animals - Amomma, the goat, and Binkie, the dog, are clearly a source of comfort to the humans. The contrasting values of Maisie and Bessie were interesting. I was torn between loathing and sympathy for both these characters, which is, I suspect, what the writer was aiming at, though at times I detected a rather patronising tone towards the female characters.
Kipling's poetic abilities occasionally shine through and impress - for instance, the repeated references back to a yellow sea poppy as a remembered image, and the descriptions of the experience of blindness.
A gem of a book really, as despite its problematic aspects and some desperately sad scenarios, it has much charm, although much of the humour is dry.
December 23, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2027167.html[return][return][return]I had been looking forward to reaching this for some time, under the impression that it was an interesting step away from Kipling's usual writing. Not sure if that is really true - it was his first novel, so not sure if it can really be characterised as a step away. And it is interesting only in places; the hero's failure to get anywhere with the girl he loves is apparently painfully autobiographical, and the casual brutality is not very pleasant to read. However, I was really grabbed by Kipling's sympathetic portrayal of his hero as an artist, not a protagonist I had expected from this author (which shows how little I knew), and of course the central drama of his going blind is then very effective. (I guess that Florence Barclay's The Rosary may have been in part a response to The Light That Failed; well, Kipling's version is actually better and mercifully shorter.)[return][return]The other point of interest for me (and a few other people) is that quite a lot of the novel revolves around British attitudes to Sudan, and the final chapter is set there (indeed the references are specifically to "Southern Sudan", though a glance at the map indicates that they did not actually get very far south). It's interesting to read about a place which I know for quite different reasons through the rather shortsighted and blurred imperialist lens.
September 8, 2008
I brought this book along with me to China because my daughter needed a procedure done because she has some problems with her optic nerve and we were going to have a lot of time in the hospital.
I got it on a whim. I love Kipling's poetry and some of his other work. When I got back to my house after buying the book at a bargain books store, I read about it on goodreads and found out that it's about a man who slowly goes blind. I thought it was very fitting that I read about a man slowly going blind as I was watching my daughter slowly recover from blindness. It was also very interesting that his problem was with his optic nerve, and so was my daughters. Karmic. So people knew what optic nerve atrophy was back in 1890, and have only very recently made strides in correcting it.
I thought the book itself wasn't that great. It was rather disjointed and didn't flow. The characters were fine, but I expected more from Kipling. I think the only reason this is a classic is because it's by him. As soon as a person has one of his books become a "classic" most of the rest are then classics as well by default.
I got it on a whim. I love Kipling's poetry and some of his other work. When I got back to my house after buying the book at a bargain books store, I read about it on goodreads and found out that it's about a man who slowly goes blind. I thought it was very fitting that I read about a man slowly going blind as I was watching my daughter slowly recover from blindness. It was also very interesting that his problem was with his optic nerve, and so was my daughters. Karmic. So people knew what optic nerve atrophy was back in 1890, and have only very recently made strides in correcting it.
I thought the book itself wasn't that great. It was rather disjointed and didn't flow. The characters were fine, but I expected more from Kipling. I think the only reason this is a classic is because it's by him. As soon as a person has one of his books become a "classic" most of the rest are then classics as well by default.
October 22, 2013
So, as I dislike reviews that attempt to provide a plot synopsis, I shan't go into one; what is important, however, is how evocative and affecting the book is. And, man, Kipling continues to write well. Of course, this is not one of his more well-known works, but it is poignant, well-envisioned, and sad.
October 24, 2015
Not one of Kipling's best IMHO, this sentimental story of a wounded war correspondent turned artist tugs at our heartstrings with the pathos of his losing his eyesight as he paints his magnum opus. Very much a story of his time, it has some limited appeal due to Kipling's gift of describing the inner workings of the hero's mind in the exotic setting of the English Raj at the height of its glory
January 27, 2012
Though I love Rudyard Kipling, this was depressing and the parts about the comrades were dull.
January 29, 2016
Felt the need to read a classic, or something by a classic author. Found it hard to read partly due to dated prose but mostly due to lake of engaging story.
Read
June 6, 2021*Kipling, merak edip, kalemiyle tanışamadığım bir yazardı. Özellikle Alberto Manguel'in 'Borges'in Evinde' kitabını okuduktan sonra iyice merak ettim Kipling'i çünkü Borges ondan sıkça söz etmiş, alıntılar yapmıştı.
*Ailesinden hayatta kalan kimse olmadığı için bakıcı bir kadın tarafından yetiştirilen bir genç oldukça zorlu geçen bir çocukluk. Bu dönemin belki de tek güzel hatırası, onunla aynı şekilde o eve yerleştirilmiş olan Maisie ilerleyen yıllarda derin ve güçlü bir aşka dönüşecek olan arkadaşlığı. Bir kader ortaklığı. Hayatın ona farklı çizdiği farklı yollar. Resim yeteneğini geliştirmek için gittiği Sudan'da savaşın ortasında kalışı ona çok değerli bir dostun yanı sıra yaptığı savaş resimleriyle de büyük başarı kazandırır. Fakat hayat, her zamanki gibi, hep aydınlık değildir. Hele çöken karanlık, bir ressam için en değerli varlık olan gözlerini elinden alıyorsa... Kör bir ressam hayatını nasıl devam ettirir? Ya sevgili Maisie? O bu hikayenin neresindedir? Nasıl bir sürprizle karşımıza çıkacak ve bizi nasıl hiç beklemediğimiz sonlara doğru götürecektir? (Arka Kapak)
*Konu;" Ailesinden kimse kalmayınca bakıcı tarafından yetiştirilen çocuk" olunca diğer yetim konulu klasikler aklıma geldi: Özellikle Uğultulu Tepeler/ Emily Brontë( konu aynı aşık yetimler), Pollyanna - Elenor H. Porter, Heidi - Johanna Spyri, Küçük Kemancı - Elenor H. Porter, Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens, Notre Dame'ın Kamburu - Victor Hugo ve daha niceleri. Karşılıksız aşk konulu ilk akla gelenler: Beyaz Geceler / Dostoyevski, Kürk Mantoolu Madonna / Sabahattin Ali, Bilinmeyen Bir Kadınn Mektubu / Stefan Zweig, Arefesinde / Turgenyev gibi eserler. Klasik dönemin en geçerli konusu herhalde aşk ve yetimlerdi. bu konularda birçok eser olduğuna göre.
*Dick'in şımarıklığı, egosu, narsistliği bazen yorucu oldu. Aynı şekilde Maisie'nin açık bir tavrının olmaması, ne kabul etmesi ne reddetmesi, durumu idare etmeside aynı şekilde sıkıcıydı.
*Sevgi nedir? Sevdiğine yardımın sınırı var mı? Yardım ederken küçümsemek / ezmek yakışık alır mı? "Senin yerine tabloyu ben yapayım, sen imzala, sergile." demek nedir? Sevginin saflığına yakışır mı? Bu teklifi okuyunca aklıma Michael Douglas'ın oynadığı "Ahlaksız Teklif" filmi geldi. İki teklifte aynı şekilde ahlaksızlık içermiyor mu?
*Bir de farklı açıdan bakarsak. Sanatların çoğu eğitim ve yetenek gerektirir. Yemek pişirmek bile bir sanattır, yetenek gerekir, sadece eğitimini almakla olmaz ( büyüklerin dediği gibi el ayarı diye bir şey var). Maisie ressam olmak istiyor (bence tutturmuş, kafaya takmış), ders alıyor ama yeteneği yok. Aldığı dersleri uygulayamıyor, tuvale aktaramıyor, yaptığı tablolar satılmıyor. O zaman ressam olmak için bu ısrar neden?
*Neden sevmeyen seviliyor? Red eden niçin isteniyor? Kaçan kovalanır, kıymetli olur mantığı mı bu? Dick'in Maisie'ye tek taraflı, ısrarcı aşkını okurken aklıma bir dizinin jeneriğinde söylenen sözler geldi:
"İki kişi birbirini sever de kavuşurlarsa mutluluk olur
Biri kaçar öbürü kovalarsa aşk olur
İkisi de sever lakin birleşemezlerse
İşte o zaman efsane olur."
*Ailesinden hayatta kalan kimse olmadığı için bakıcı bir kadın tarafından yetiştirilen bir genç oldukça zorlu geçen bir çocukluk. Bu dönemin belki de tek güzel hatırası, onunla aynı şekilde o eve yerleştirilmiş olan Maisie ilerleyen yıllarda derin ve güçlü bir aşka dönüşecek olan arkadaşlığı. Bir kader ortaklığı. Hayatın ona farklı çizdiği farklı yollar. Resim yeteneğini geliştirmek için gittiği Sudan'da savaşın ortasında kalışı ona çok değerli bir dostun yanı sıra yaptığı savaş resimleriyle de büyük başarı kazandırır. Fakat hayat, her zamanki gibi, hep aydınlık değildir. Hele çöken karanlık, bir ressam için en değerli varlık olan gözlerini elinden alıyorsa... Kör bir ressam hayatını nasıl devam ettirir? Ya sevgili Maisie? O bu hikayenin neresindedir? Nasıl bir sürprizle karşımıza çıkacak ve bizi nasıl hiç beklemediğimiz sonlara doğru götürecektir? (Arka Kapak)
*Konu;" Ailesinden kimse kalmayınca bakıcı tarafından yetiştirilen çocuk" olunca diğer yetim konulu klasikler aklıma geldi: Özellikle Uğultulu Tepeler/ Emily Brontë( konu aynı aşık yetimler), Pollyanna - Elenor H. Porter, Heidi - Johanna Spyri, Küçük Kemancı - Elenor H. Porter, Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens, Notre Dame'ın Kamburu - Victor Hugo ve daha niceleri. Karşılıksız aşk konulu ilk akla gelenler: Beyaz Geceler / Dostoyevski, Kürk Mantoolu Madonna / Sabahattin Ali, Bilinmeyen Bir Kadınn Mektubu / Stefan Zweig, Arefesinde / Turgenyev gibi eserler. Klasik dönemin en geçerli konusu herhalde aşk ve yetimlerdi. bu konularda birçok eser olduğuna göre.
*Dick'in şımarıklığı, egosu, narsistliği bazen yorucu oldu. Aynı şekilde Maisie'nin açık bir tavrının olmaması, ne kabul etmesi ne reddetmesi, durumu idare etmeside aynı şekilde sıkıcıydı.
*Sevgi nedir? Sevdiğine yardımın sınırı var mı? Yardım ederken küçümsemek / ezmek yakışık alır mı? "Senin yerine tabloyu ben yapayım, sen imzala, sergile." demek nedir? Sevginin saflığına yakışır mı? Bu teklifi okuyunca aklıma Michael Douglas'ın oynadığı "Ahlaksız Teklif" filmi geldi. İki teklifte aynı şekilde ahlaksızlık içermiyor mu?
*Bir de farklı açıdan bakarsak. Sanatların çoğu eğitim ve yetenek gerektirir. Yemek pişirmek bile bir sanattır, yetenek gerekir, sadece eğitimini almakla olmaz ( büyüklerin dediği gibi el ayarı diye bir şey var). Maisie ressam olmak istiyor (bence tutturmuş, kafaya takmış), ders alıyor ama yeteneği yok. Aldığı dersleri uygulayamıyor, tuvale aktaramıyor, yaptığı tablolar satılmıyor. O zaman ressam olmak için bu ısrar neden?
*Neden sevmeyen seviliyor? Red eden niçin isteniyor? Kaçan kovalanır, kıymetli olur mantığı mı bu? Dick'in Maisie'ye tek taraflı, ısrarcı aşkını okurken aklıma bir dizinin jeneriğinde söylenen sözler geldi:
"İki kişi birbirini sever de kavuşurlarsa mutluluk olur
Biri kaçar öbürü kovalarsa aşk olur
İkisi de sever lakin birleşemezlerse
İşte o zaman efsane olur."
March 2, 2021
Ein hartes Stück Arbeit, sich durch die erste Hälfte durchzukämpfen. Das Buch hat drei Tage länger gebraucht als normal, aber ich wollte das Buch unbedingt zu Ende lesen und nicht abbrechen. Die erste Hälfte ist bisweilen sterbenslangweilig, aber die zweite Hälfte und das Ende des Buches sind viel besser. Das dramatische Finale hatte mich ursprünglich dazu verleitet, das Buch überhaupt in die Hand zu nehmen.
Das Buch hat mehrere Themen im Umfeld der Kriegsberichterstattung: eine unerfüllte Liebe zwischen Dick, dem Maler, und Macie, die ihn nicht will, aber sich Hilfe dabei erhofft, ihre Ambitionen auf eine künstlerische Karriere zu erfüllen, was freilich mangels Talent aber ebenso unerfüllt bleibt. Die Freundschaft zwischen Dick, der als Zeichner und Schlachtenmaler ein (fiktiver) Vorläufer heutiger Photojournalisten war, und Thorpenhow, dem Korrespondenten. Diese beiden Teile füllen insbesondere die erste Hälfte aus. Stark dagegen sind die Geschichte des Erblindens des Künstlers, eine Spätfolge einer Kriegsverletzung aus dem Sudan, und das Rennen mit der Zeit, sein Opus Magnum "Melancholie" fertigzustellen. Die Rache des Models, die das Bild unmittelbar nach der Fertigstellung zerstört, und der Abgang des Helden sind auch sehr gute Einfälle.
Alle diese Themen bergen das Potenzial auf Drama und Emotionen, doch Kipling bleibt stets distanziert. Das empfinde ich als schriftstellerische Schwäche. Interessant finde ich, wie Kipling seinen überlieferten Deutschenhass den Figuren in den Mund legt, indem sie an den Werken deutscher Künstler kein gutes Haar lassen. Nun, Kipling hat mit dem Verlust beider Kinder bezahlt, seinem Sohn ermöglichte er durch Angabe eines falschen Geburtsdatums den verfrühten Kriegseintritt als 16-jähriger, was sich als tödliche Euphorie herausstellte. Auch sind Kiplings Ansichten über das Empire und die unterworfenen Völker in seinen Büchern nicht immer zeitgeistkompatibel bzw. entsprechen eben dem damaligen Zeitgeist, nicht dem heutigen. Die Souveränität im Umgang damit geht dem Haltungs- und Empörungsbürger heutzutage ja vielfach ab. Insofern erwarte ich stündlich die Rückgängigmachung des Nobelpreises von 1907.
Das Buch hat mehrere Themen im Umfeld der Kriegsberichterstattung: eine unerfüllte Liebe zwischen Dick, dem Maler, und Macie, die ihn nicht will, aber sich Hilfe dabei erhofft, ihre Ambitionen auf eine künstlerische Karriere zu erfüllen, was freilich mangels Talent aber ebenso unerfüllt bleibt. Die Freundschaft zwischen Dick, der als Zeichner und Schlachtenmaler ein (fiktiver) Vorläufer heutiger Photojournalisten war, und Thorpenhow, dem Korrespondenten. Diese beiden Teile füllen insbesondere die erste Hälfte aus. Stark dagegen sind die Geschichte des Erblindens des Künstlers, eine Spätfolge einer Kriegsverletzung aus dem Sudan, und das Rennen mit der Zeit, sein Opus Magnum "Melancholie" fertigzustellen. Die Rache des Models, die das Bild unmittelbar nach der Fertigstellung zerstört, und der Abgang des Helden sind auch sehr gute Einfälle.
Alle diese Themen bergen das Potenzial auf Drama und Emotionen, doch Kipling bleibt stets distanziert. Das empfinde ich als schriftstellerische Schwäche. Interessant finde ich, wie Kipling seinen überlieferten Deutschenhass den Figuren in den Mund legt, indem sie an den Werken deutscher Künstler kein gutes Haar lassen. Nun, Kipling hat mit dem Verlust beider Kinder bezahlt, seinem Sohn ermöglichte er durch Angabe eines falschen Geburtsdatums den verfrühten Kriegseintritt als 16-jähriger, was sich als tödliche Euphorie herausstellte. Auch sind Kiplings Ansichten über das Empire und die unterworfenen Völker in seinen Büchern nicht immer zeitgeistkompatibel bzw. entsprechen eben dem damaligen Zeitgeist, nicht dem heutigen. Die Souveränität im Umgang damit geht dem Haltungs- und Empörungsbürger heutzutage ja vielfach ab. Insofern erwarte ich stündlich die Rückgängigmachung des Nobelpreises von 1907.
January 21, 2020
When I bought it, I didn’t even know who the author was. It was just after I started reading it that I found out who was telling me the story.
May I say that the painting subject reminded me a little of The Picture of Dorian Gray?
I was expecting more and more from every topic the author has touched, more details about the picture, about his lost love... Everything was told in such a restrictive way of writing. Although I don’t quite enjoy the war parts( not in this book, not in others except some of Hemingway’s books), they were necessary for the action.
The childhood lost love was something I wanted more from - so little insight thoughts, the struggling blindness problem - so little insight thoughts...
The main character paints in a war’s background so when he finds Bessie, he thinks he got the biggest prize, only to be betrayed by her. His friendship with the one who once saved him and gave him a place to stay in, so a future, is the thing that brings him death. He got what he wanted: death in the place where he found himself but also lost himself(->blindness).
May I say that the painting subject reminded me a little of The Picture of Dorian Gray?
I was expecting more and more from every topic the author has touched, more details about the picture, about his lost love... Everything was told in such a restrictive way of writing. Although I don’t quite enjoy the war parts( not in this book, not in others except some of Hemingway’s books), they were necessary for the action.
The childhood lost love was something I wanted more from - so little insight thoughts, the struggling blindness problem - so little insight thoughts...
The main character paints in a war’s background so when he finds Bessie, he thinks he got the biggest prize, only to be betrayed by her. His friendship with the one who once saved him and gave him a place to stay in, so a future, is the thing that brings him death. He got what he wanted: death in the place where he found himself but also lost himself(->blindness).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2025
Kipling is a writer that manages to make what should be a deeply sad story about a mistreated young boy, knowing misery and suffering, unrequited love, going finally blind and dying still come out as a triumph of humanity, of character and love of life. As a reader you get drawn into the life of the protagonist, you sympathize and feel for him through his misery but can't help but also feel his joy and elation when he is among beloved friends, making his drawings. Kipling shows us how human beings suffer under external factors but also how we can choose to either succumb to those pressures or choose to rise above them, meet them on our own terms, even as death is always inevitable. yet human beings can choose to meet it with dignity, honour, humour and joy. I recommend this book to everyone who knows Kipling only through his jungle books. Worth reading indeed.
May 4, 2025
It is very obvious that this book was Kipling's first novel and is over 100 years old. The good ol' boy bantering of the war correspondents and the idealistic fantasies of eternal love for someone you knew as a child date the book. Kipling writes well, but I was irritated by the glorification of war and the sappiness of the unrequited love in the novel. Dick, the main character, is vain and naive until an old war injury causes him to slowly go blind. Since he made his living as an artist and tried to attract the woman of his dreams with his artistic skills, his blindness is an appalling blow. Also, the woman of his dreams isn’t worthy of his love, and all of the women in the novel are shallow and conniving.
August 7, 2025
As an artist myself, some parts of this resonated deeply, while others left me wondering why I should care. I was going to give it three stars, but the ending was so bland that I knocked one off. What was the point?
June 11, 2024
and one plays it from the utter dark, stumbling up and down rough ways, thinking and eternally thinking what might have been if things had fallen out otherwise, if all had been as it were not.
December 12, 2024
After listening to NBC University Theater’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Light That Failed”, I was really interested in seeing how much it kept to the storyline, it passed with flying colors for some parts are abbreviated but it rings true. There were two different endings, when first published in the monthy magazine in 1890 which was the happy one and the sad ending was published in his novel after the article, it seems that he had written the novel version but having it changed to a shorter and happier ending. My Delphi collection of his works had the novel ending as did the radio version, I was able to see the other ending online and it is indeed happy, yet not completely so in my eyes. There are 12 chapters in the serial compared to 15 in the novel. The happy ending really does not ring true because Maisie seems more to pity than to love, she was indeed all in for her goals that Dick only wanted her when she truly wanted him to love, he was willing to wait. The Bess effect on Dick after the painting’s ruin is told to him, is the sad turning point but also a show of strength in mind to not let things control his life but put it back into his own hands.
Kipling’s passages with conversations with the soldiers and their friends is something difficult to truly know what the author was saying, it might just be jargon of the day, which made the story a tad less enjoyable but overall I loved this sad tale but yet their was something uplifting in it. I really appreciate the masculinity of the times compared to the present.
Story in short-Dick Heldar the artist and the challenges that he faces.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 15
Kipling’s first novel was published in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Most of the novel is set in
London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The novel follows
the adventures of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind.
Page 19
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 19
‘I’m not afraid.’ Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air. Dick followed
with a small pin-fire revolver. The children had discovered that their lives would be unendurable
without pistol-practice. After much forethought and self-denial, Dick had saved seven shillings and
sixpence, the price of a badly constructed Belgian revolver.
Page 20
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Revolvers did not lie in the scheme of their daily life as decreed for them by the guardian who was
incorrectly supposed to stand in the place of a mother to these two orphans. Dick had been under her
care for six years, during which time she had made her profit of the allowances supposed to be expended
on his clothes, and, partly through thoughtlessness, partly through a natural desire to pain, — she was a
widow of some years anxious to marry again, — had made his days burdensome on his young shoulders.
Where he had looked for love, she gave him first aversion and then hate.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Dick Heldar.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Dick learned to loathe his God as intensely as he loathed Mrs. Jennett; and this is not a wholesome frame
of mind for the young. Since she
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
chose to regard him as a hopeless liar, when dread of pain drove him to his first untruth, he naturally
developed into a liar, but an economical and self-contained one, never throwing away the least
unnecessary fib, and never hesitating at the blackest, were it only plausible, that might make his life a
little easier. The treatment taught him at least the power of living alone, — a power that was of service
to him when he went to a public school and the boys laughed at his clothes, which were poor in quality
and much mended.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
In the holidays he returned to the teachings of Mrs. Jennett, and, that the chain of discipline might not
be weakened by association with the world, was generally beaten, on one account or another, before he
had been twelve hours under her roof.
Page 24
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 24
‘There won’t b any next holidays for me,’ said Maisie. ‘I’m going away.’ ‘Where to?’ ‘I don’t know. My
lawyers have written to Mrs. Jennett, and I’ve got to be educated somewhere, — in France, perhaps, — I
don’t know
Page 28
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 28
‘And I shall be — —’ quoth Dick, valiantly. Then he checked himself: ‘I don’t know what I shall be. I don’t
seem to be able to pass any exams, but I can make awful caricatures of the masters. Ho! Ho!’ ‘Be an artist,
then,’ said Maisie. ‘You’re always laughing at my trying to draw; and it will do you good.’ ‘I’ll never laugh
at anything you do,’ he answered. ‘I’ll be an artist, and I’ll do things.’ ‘Artists always want money, don’t
they?’
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 28
‘I’ve got a hundred and twenty pounds a year of my own. My guardians tell me I’m to have it when I
come of age. That will be enough to begin with.’ ‘Ah, I’m rich,’ said Maisie. ‘I’ve got three hundred a year
all my own when I’m twenty-one. That’s why Mrs. Jennett is kinder to me than she is to you. I wish,
though, that I had somebody that belonged to me, — just a father or a mother.’ ‘You belong to me,’ said
Dick, ‘for ever and ever.’
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 28
‘And I — love you, Maisie,’ he said, in a whisper that seemed to him to ring across the world, — the world
that he would to-morrow or the next day set out to conquer.
***Dick Hedler is a young orphan boy who lives with Mrs. Jennett. He is poor without family and though he had been alone for awhile until a young girl also lives with Jennett. Dick is treated poorly as Maisie but she has money so less so. Maisie told Dick that while he was away at school… she is to go to Paris for her education. They proclaim their love and will be for each other.
Page 32
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
With the soldiers sweated and toiled the correspondents of the newspapers, and they were almost as
ignorant as their companions. But it was above all things necessary that England at breakfast should be
amused and thrilled and interested, whether Gordon lived or died, or half the British army went to
pieces in the sands.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
There were many correspondents with many corps and columns, — from the veterans who had
followed on the heels of the cavalry that occupied Cairo
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
in ‘82, what time Arabi Pasha called himself king, who had seen the first miserable work round Suakin
when the sentries were cut up nightly and the scrub swarmed with spears, to youngsters jerked into the
business at the end of a telegraph-wire to take the places of their betters killed or invalided.
Page 34
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 34
‘And, by the way, what’s your name?’ said Torpenhow. ‘Heldar. Do they give me a free hand?’ ‘They’ve
taken you on chance. You must justify the choice. You’d better stick to me. I’m going up-country with a
column, and I’ll do what I can for you.
Page 35
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 35
Dick followed Torpenhow wherever the latter’s fancy chose to lead him, and between the two they
managed to accomplish some work that almost satisfied themselves. It
3
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 35
was not an easy life in any way, and under its influence the two were drawn very closely together, for
they ate from the same dish, they shared the same water-bottle, and, most binding tie of all, their mails
went off together.
Page 36
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 36
‘It’s my initials, — Gilbert Belling Torpenhow. I stole the cloth on purpose.
Page 38
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 38
Their business was to destroy what lay in front of them, to bayonet in the back those who passed over
them, and, dying, to drag down the slayer till he could be knocked on the head by some avenging gun-
butt. Dick waited with Torpenhow and a young doctor till the stress grew unendurable. It was hopeless
to attend to the wounded till the attack was repulsed, so the three moved forward gingerly towards the
weakest side of the square.
Page 39
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 39
Dick was conscious that somebody had cut him violently across his helmet, that he had fired his
revolver into a black, foam-flecked face which forthwith ceased to bear any resemblance to a face, and
that Torpenhow had gone down under an Arab whom he had tried to ‘collar low,’ and was turning over
and over with his captive, feeling for the man’s eyes.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 39
If the heart of the square were shambles, the ground beyond was a butcher’s shop.
Page 40
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 40
He put his hand to his head and brought it away covered with blood. ‘Old man, you’re cut rather badly,’
said Torpenhow. ‘I owe you something for this business. Thanks. Stand up! I say, you can’t be ill here.’
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 40
But Torpenhow took no heed. He was watching Dick, who called aloud to the restless Nile for Maisie, —
and again Maisie! ‘Behold a phenomenon,’ said Torpenhow, rearranging the blanket. ‘Here is a man,
presumably human, who mentions the name of one
4
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 40
woman only. And I’ve seen a good deal of delirium, too. — Dick, here’s some fizzy drink.’ ‘Thank you,
Maisie,’ said Dick
*** Dick is in the war painting and drawing with the help of Torpenhow who he met on the battlefield and was enlisted with the press. They saw combat together and Dick was wounded.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Dick wanted Maisie to love him but she wanted his attention, liking it only on her but knowing that it was not probable if she neglected him. She only let him kiss her once as an adult and she was not too happy then. As kids they were close but Maisie's want of fame when her talents lacked. She could never appreciate his talent, always thinking of her's, not knowing that Bess had destroyed his work which was a masterpiece, she only looked on it with shame.
When Dick lost his sight he felt that his life was over and he could never have his perfect Maisie, he looked up to her. He gave up on life when he became blind, where he could have tried to paint for he was very young. I loved the band of brother feeling in these men.
Kipling’s passages with conversations with the soldiers and their friends is something difficult to truly know what the author was saying, it might just be jargon of the day, which made the story a tad less enjoyable but overall I loved this sad tale but yet their was something uplifting in it. I really appreciate the masculinity of the times compared to the present.
Story in short-Dick Heldar the artist and the challenges that he faces.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 15
Kipling’s first novel was published in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Most of the novel is set in
London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The novel follows
the adventures of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind.
Page 19
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 19
‘I’m not afraid.’ Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air. Dick followed
with a small pin-fire revolver. The children had discovered that their lives would be unendurable
without pistol-practice. After much forethought and self-denial, Dick had saved seven shillings and
sixpence, the price of a badly constructed Belgian revolver.
Page 20
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Revolvers did not lie in the scheme of their daily life as decreed for them by the guardian who was
incorrectly supposed to stand in the place of a mother to these two orphans. Dick had been under her
care for six years, during which time she had made her profit of the allowances supposed to be expended
on his clothes, and, partly through thoughtlessness, partly through a natural desire to pain, — she was a
widow of some years anxious to marry again, — had made his days burdensome on his young shoulders.
Where he had looked for love, she gave him first aversion and then hate.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Dick Heldar.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
Dick learned to loathe his God as intensely as he loathed Mrs. Jennett; and this is not a wholesome frame
of mind for the young. Since she
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
chose to regard him as a hopeless liar, when dread of pain drove him to his first untruth, he naturally
developed into a liar, but an economical and self-contained one, never throwing away the least
unnecessary fib, and never hesitating at the blackest, were it only plausible, that might make his life a
little easier. The treatment taught him at least the power of living alone, — a power that was of service
to him when he went to a public school and the boys laughed at his clothes, which were poor in quality
and much mended.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 20
In the holidays he returned to the teachings of Mrs. Jennett, and, that the chain of discipline might not
be weakened by association with the world, was generally beaten, on one account or another, before he
had been twelve hours under her roof.
Page 24
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 24
‘There won’t b any next holidays for me,’ said Maisie. ‘I’m going away.’ ‘Where to?’ ‘I don’t know. My
lawyers have written to Mrs. Jennett, and I’ve got to be educated somewhere, — in France, perhaps, — I
don’t know
Page 28
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 28
‘And I shall be — —’ quoth Dick, valiantly. Then he checked himself: ‘I don’t know what I shall be. I don’t
seem to be able to pass any exams, but I can make awful caricatures of the masters. Ho! Ho!’ ‘Be an artist,
then,’ said Maisie. ‘You’re always laughing at my trying to draw; and it will do you good.’ ‘I’ll never laugh
at anything you do,’ he answered. ‘I’ll be an artist, and I’ll do things.’ ‘Artists always want money, don’t
they?’
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 28
‘I’ve got a hundred and twenty pounds a year of my own. My guardians tell me I’m to have it when I
come of age. That will be enough to begin with.’ ‘Ah, I’m rich,’ said Maisie. ‘I’ve got three hundred a year
all my own when I’m twenty-one. That’s why Mrs. Jennett is kinder to me than she is to you. I wish,
though, that I had somebody that belonged to me, — just a father or a mother.’ ‘You belong to me,’ said
Dick, ‘for ever and ever.’
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 28
‘And I — love you, Maisie,’ he said, in a whisper that seemed to him to ring across the world, — the world
that he would to-morrow or the next day set out to conquer.
***Dick Hedler is a young orphan boy who lives with Mrs. Jennett. He is poor without family and though he had been alone for awhile until a young girl also lives with Jennett. Dick is treated poorly as Maisie but she has money so less so. Maisie told Dick that while he was away at school… she is to go to Paris for her education. They proclaim their love and will be for each other.
Page 32
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
With the soldiers sweated and toiled the correspondents of the newspapers, and they were almost as
ignorant as their companions. But it was above all things necessary that England at breakfast should be
amused and thrilled and interested, whether Gordon lived or died, or half the British army went to
pieces in the sands.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
There were many correspondents with many corps and columns, — from the veterans who had
followed on the heels of the cavalry that occupied Cairo
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 32
in ‘82, what time Arabi Pasha called himself king, who had seen the first miserable work round Suakin
when the sentries were cut up nightly and the scrub swarmed with spears, to youngsters jerked into the
business at the end of a telegraph-wire to take the places of their betters killed or invalided.
Page 34
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 34
‘And, by the way, what’s your name?’ said Torpenhow. ‘Heldar. Do they give me a free hand?’ ‘They’ve
taken you on chance. You must justify the choice. You’d better stick to me. I’m going up-country with a
column, and I’ll do what I can for you.
Page 35
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 35
Dick followed Torpenhow wherever the latter’s fancy chose to lead him, and between the two they
managed to accomplish some work that almost satisfied themselves. It
3
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 35
was not an easy life in any way, and under its influence the two were drawn very closely together, for
they ate from the same dish, they shared the same water-bottle, and, most binding tie of all, their mails
went off together.
Page 36
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 36
‘It’s my initials, — Gilbert Belling Torpenhow. I stole the cloth on purpose.
Page 38
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 38
Their business was to destroy what lay in front of them, to bayonet in the back those who passed over
them, and, dying, to drag down the slayer till he could be knocked on the head by some avenging gun-
butt. Dick waited with Torpenhow and a young doctor till the stress grew unendurable. It was hopeless
to attend to the wounded till the attack was repulsed, so the three moved forward gingerly towards the
weakest side of the square.
Page 39
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 39
Dick was conscious that somebody had cut him violently across his helmet, that he had fired his
revolver into a black, foam-flecked face which forthwith ceased to bear any resemblance to a face, and
that Torpenhow had gone down under an Arab whom he had tried to ‘collar low,’ and was turning over
and over with his captive, feeling for the man’s eyes.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 39
If the heart of the square were shambles, the ground beyond was a butcher’s shop.
Page 40
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 40
He put his hand to his head and brought it away covered with blood. ‘Old man, you’re cut rather badly,’
said Torpenhow. ‘I owe you something for this business. Thanks. Stand up! I say, you can’t be ill here.’
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 40
But Torpenhow took no heed. He was watching Dick, who called aloud to the restless Nile for Maisie, —
and again Maisie! ‘Behold a phenomenon,’ said Torpenhow, rearranging the blanket. ‘Here is a man,
presumably human, who mentions the name of one
4
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Page 40
woman only. And I’ve seen a good deal of delirium, too. — Dick, here’s some fizzy drink.’ ‘Thank you,
Maisie,’ said Dick
*** Dick is in the war painting and drawing with the help of Torpenhow who he met on the battlefield and was enlisted with the press. They saw combat together and Dick was wounded.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Dick wanted Maisie to love him but she wanted his attention, liking it only on her but knowing that it was not probable if she neglected him. She only let him kiss her once as an adult and she was not too happy then. As kids they were close but Maisie's want of fame when her talents lacked. She could never appreciate his talent, always thinking of her's, not knowing that Bess had destroyed his work which was a masterpiece, she only looked on it with shame.
When Dick lost his sight he felt that his life was over and he could never have his perfect Maisie, he looked up to her. He gave up on life when he became blind, where he could have tried to paint for he was very young. I loved the band of brother feeling in these men.
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