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Juxtaposing stories and poems, introducing futuristic sky-travellers, Sussex peasants and would-be-Bloomsbury poseurs, this volume displays Kipling as a connoisseur of variety of life and art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Kipling about revenge -- during and just prior to the Great War
A Diversity of Creatures was published in 1917, but most of the stories predate World War I, and it shows. The book resembles the just preceding adult collection, Actions and Reactions, more than it does the postwar collections such as Limits and Renewals. Indeed, I would classify A Diversity of Creatures as something of a disappointment, if only relative to Kipling's high standard. It does include one of his all-time great stories, "Mary Postgate", and one other very fine story, the odd SF piece "As Easy as A. B. C." Perhaps not surprisingly these close and open the collection. There is also the famous comic story "The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat".

The most obvious recurring theme in the collection is revenge, and not always in a good way. Quite often the revenge is by characters Kipling appears to approve of against hapless or awkward antagonists, and seems out of proportion to the original offense. For example, in "The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat", a group of people in an early motorcar are caught in a sort of speed trap, clearly a revenue grab by a local Baronet. They are newspaper people, as well as an M. P. and (in another car) a theatre man. They get together to subject the village in which they were mistreated to humiliation by such means as arranging for them to be hoodwinked into voting that the Earth is flat after a presentation by a fake member of the Flat Earth Society.

"As Easy as A.B.C." is a sequel to "With the Night Mail". It is set in 2065. The world by this time has become a mostly libertarian paradise, with a declining population and a horror of invasion of privacy. One form of invasion of privacy, in this formulation, is democracy, with its imposure of majority will. Paradoxically (or not), the generally libertarian nature of this society is maintained by the Draconian rule of "The A.B.C., that semi-elected, semi-nominated, body of a few score persons", as the introductory paragraph has it. In this story some members of the A.B.C. are travelling to Chicago, where it seems a few idlers and no-accounts have been assembling and trying to force votes on various issues. The other locals, horrified, call in the A.B.C. demanding that they take over -- if they don't, they say, people might get killed. And so the A.B.C., rather drastically it seemed to me, takes things in hand -- though with magic tech that supposedly won't actually really hurt anyone. Politics aside (the views put forth are, I think, purposely exaggerated for effect), I really liked the story. It seems very fresh, very science-fictional and well thought out, for all that it dates to 1912.

The title character of "Mary Postgate" is a spinster hired to be companion to a well-off woman, Miss Fowler. Miss Fowler's nephew Wynn is orphaned, and she and Mary Postgate more or less raise him, until he joins the nascent Flying Corps at the outbreak of war. Soon he dies in a training accident. Through all this we gather something of Mary Postgate's relationship to him: clearly she dotes on the boy while he treats her with casual disrespect that one supposes includes a reluctant admixture of affection. Mary Postgate suffers in silence through the funeral, and the cleaning up of his effects. The two women decide to burn some of Wynn's belongings, and as Mary is working on his there is another accident -- a building collapses, and a local child is killed. At about the same time an airplane crashes near the incinerator where Mary Postgate is burying Wynn's effects. Mary immediately (and almost certainly erroneously) decides that the airplane had dropped a bomb, causing the building collapse. When she finds the downed pilot, she refuses him any help (though he speaks in French, albeit possibly German accented French), instead guarding him until he dies -- an event she reacts to in a stunning scene in which she seems perhaps to come to orgasm as the main dies.

It's an odd odd story, and Mary Postgate is one of Kipling's stranger characters. You might think that the story, written in about 1917, in the midst of the War, should be read straight -- that Mary is simply doing her bit for the War effort, killing her German, as it were, while mourning her lost surrogate son, who died as a result of the War. But everywhere this is undermined. Mary's actions are hardly heroic, and her orgasmic reaction to his death is distasteful. The German pilot isn't even necessarily German -- he could be French, an ally. Mary assumes he dropped a bomb on the village and killed a child -- but that does not seem likely. Mary's beloved Wynn does not die in action but in a training accident. To me the story seems rather to be concerned with the tragic waste of war, with the danger of excessive vengefulness, and with one particular character: the spinster Mary Postgate.

These stories are the cream of the crop in this book. There are other fine stories (for example "In the Same Boat"), and even the lesser stories are Kipling -- thus hardly to be ignored! The 4 star rating is only relative to the greatest Kipling collections, such as Limits and Renewals and Traffics and Discoveries. ... Read more

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Great Book!
Mr. Richards had the largest private collection of Kipling literature at the time he donated it to the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale in 2007. This masterful guide to that collection, and to Kipling's life and work in general, is erudite, witty and altogether what one expects from one of the world's foremost experts on Kipling. It is a pleasure to read and highly recommended.

A beautiful book!
A beautiful exhibition catalog, especially for the Kipling collector, but also for anyone interested in British literature.Well illustrated with books and other artifacts from the exhibit;the text for each section is excellent and puts the illustrations in the context of Kipling's life. In addition to what is illustrated, there is a listing in each section of other items in the exhibit. The two essays on collecting Kipling are very well done. ... Read more

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If you love a good story, then look no further.Oxford Children's Classics bring together the most unforgettable stories ever told.They're books to treasure and return to again and again.

Mowgli is found in the jungle by wolves, who bring him up as one of their own. The jungle is no easy place to live for a man-cub, and Mowgli must learn its secrets from Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the python. But their lessons cannot protect Mowgli from every danger - will he escape from his kidnap by the Monkey-People? And can he get the better of the evil tiger, Shere Khan? ... Read more

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There were labour contractors by the half-hundred - fitters and riveters, European, borrowed from the railway workshops, with, perhaps, twenty white and half-caste subordinates to direct, under direction, the bevies of workmen - but none knew better than these two, who trusted each other, how the underlings were not to be trusted. They had been tried many times in sudden crises - by slipping of booms, by breaking of tackle, failure of cranes, and the wrath of the river. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Late Lackluster Kipling
First, Kipling is a great writer, so almost anything he chooses to put his hand to will be worth perusing--once.His later short stories tend to be about "manly men" who speak in a telscoped professional short hand about "manly things."So, if you don't know much about firearms, ships, trains or cars circa 1900, some of the dialogue will seem a bit abstruse such as this bit from, "The Captive," the lead story in this collection:"I presume you never heard tell of the Laughton-Zigler automatic two-inch field-gun, with self-feeding hopper, single oil-cylinder recoil, and ball-bearing gear throughout?Or Laughtite, the new explosive?Absolutely uniform in effect, and one-ninth the bulk of any present effete charge--flake, cannonite, cordite, troisdorf, cellulose, cocoa, cord, or prism--I don't care what it is.Laughtite's immense, so's the Zigler automatic."Hmmm, maybe they are "immense," but Kipling is right to presume.Anyway, "The Captive" is yet another, in an unlimited series, of Kipling's jingoistic puff-pieces defending the British Empire and allaying anyone's concern that the British aren't just the nicest, most understanding, understated and smartest chaps about, but also the most able too--even in the face of Laughtite and Zigler.This story is of some interest in that it is defending Britain's aggression in South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century, otherwise known as the Boer War, which bequeathed to the world one of the most emblematic of twentieth-century inventions: the concentration camp (or at least the label).

The rest of the stories are a mixed lot of various cats and dogs.There's "The Bonds of Discipline," featuring one of Kipling's recurring characters, the irascible seaman, Emanuel Pyecroft.In a very different vein from "The Captive," this story demonstrates how the British are the nicest, most understanding, understated, smartest--oh, and ablest--chaps about in matching wits with the "Portugee," as opposed to the Dutch Boer. Then there's "A Sahib's War," also a very different story which concerns an Indian who travels with his British master to South Africa and there discovers that even Indians realize that the British are the nicest, most understanding, understated, smartest and ablest chaps about in matching wits with the Dutch Boer.Then, as a twist, there's another Pyecroft story, "Their Lawful Occasions," concerning how some British may not be the nicest, most understanding, understated, smartest and ablest chaps when they try to match wits with other British--namely one Pyecroft and companions--who, in turn, really are the nicest, most understanding, understated, smartest and ablest chaps.The rest of the short stories are even more divergent than these.

So, how does Kipling get three stars?Well, it's sort of like the question once posed to Andre Gide about who the greatest French poet was--the answer:"Victor Hugo, alas!"And who do you think is the greatest English short story writer?Sigh. ... Read more

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Kipling's classic Mowgli tales spring to new life with the help of stunning artwork by acclaimed illustrator Nicola Bayley.

First published in 1984 in THE JUNGLE BOOK, these three stories tell ofMowgli's upbringing by wolves in the Indian jungle. When he is a baby they save him from the tiger Shere Khan, then teach him the law and language of the jungle animals, with help from two other unforgettable characters, Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. In this classic edition, Mowgli's adventures are illustrated in ravishing and exquisite detail by Nicola Bayley. ... Read more

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Rudyard Kipling is undoubtedly among the great short story writers in the English language. This collection opens with "The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows," the first story Kipling published as a young journalist in India, and ends with an acknowledged masterpiece, "The Gardener," written 50 years later in the aftermath of the Great War. The stories of the intervening years show an extraordinary range of subject matter and technique. Above all, these stories reveal Kipling's ability to enter imaginatively into the minds of characters whose lives and values were radically different from his own-his willingness, as he himself once said, "to think in another man's skin." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Very Good Selection
Whether you are a fan of the greatest short story writer in history or someone looking for an introduction, this volume is the best selection of his stories that I have come across. I have about three other collected works at home and this is the edition that I carry overseas on trip to while away hours late at night. It ecapsulates all eras and genres of Kipling's unique gift of story telling. It is more or less chronological and evinces a sort of pervasive enuie for the human condition, pathos, and at times brilliance and adulation.

Kipling gets some bad press because of some of his writing (most of it contemporary journalistic artcles) that seem to be a sideways adulation of imperialism. Ironic because if any person ever wanted an introduction to the dissillusion of imperialism, the corrosive influence it has on human relations, then Kipling offers the best samples. The poignant and heartwrenching tale of mixed marriage in "Without Benefit of Clergy" is something that stands out. Moods of loss as a result of WWI comes through in "The Gardener" and in what I think is some of the most intriguing prose is the fate of locals set in cicumstances where they clearly should not be... Kipling has an uncanny ability to describe female emotions which positively are really only akin to Katherine Mansfield "A Wayside Comedy."

There is also the dangers of getting lost in the land and the way that the land will always reclaim itself no matter what the power or the depredations of the white sahibs -- "The Man Who Would be King."

There are the course revelries of the working-class infantry blokes, their inability to understand the place, their irreverence of the locals and the prisons of their ignorance. My favourite "The Miracle of Purun Baghat", a tale of a former Princely dependence leader who, at the top of his career leaves it all to lead the life of extreme astheticism as a Sadhu and becomes a God.

There is a lot here to ponder and keep you company. Jingoism is about the furthest thing from one's mind when reading Kipling -- an extreme melancholy and pathos -- undoubtedly. ... Read more

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A Partial Book
The poems that follow each story are missing.Only the poem titles are present. ... Read more

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"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. ... Read more

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“Readable and reliable . . . [Gilmour’s] assessment of the political background of Kipling’s writings is exemplary.” —Earl L. Dachslager, Houston Chronicle

David Gilmour’s superbly nuanced biography of Rudyard Kipling, now available in paperback, is the first to show how the great writer’s life and work mirrored the trajectory of the British Empire, from its zenith to its final decades. His great poem “Recessional” celebrated Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and his last poems warned of the dangers of Nazism, while Kipling himself, an icon of the empire, was transformed from an apostle of success to a prophet of national decline. As Gilmour makes clear, Kipling’s mysterious and enduring works deeply influenced the way his readers saw both themselves and the British Empire, and they continue to challenge our own generation.
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Kipling Re-considered
At a time when the "politically correct" holds sway in much of the media for intellectuals and all too much of academia, Rudyard Kipling is persona non grata -- the author of charming Victorian children's tales, but irredeemably tainted as an advocate and apologist for the British Empire and its subjugation of so many blacks and browns in the world.This biography of Kipling shows that the popular image de jour of Kipling is oversimplified and, at bottom, unfair and wrong.

David Gilmour deliberately focuses on the "imperial" Kipling, or the political (as opposed to the literary) aspect of his life.Of course, it is impossible to cleave Kipling into two selves, one political and the other literary.No one can be so compartmentalized, but Kipling resists it more than most because he was so unabashedly a political writer.And Gilmour chooses to emphasize that fact by exploring Kipling's politics and his view of the British Empire, as well as his role in celebrating it and then mourning its imminent demise (Kipling died before World War II and the death throes of empire).As Gilmour puts it in his preface:"This is the first volume to chronicle Kipling's political life, his early role as apostle of the Empire, the embodiment of imperial aspiration, and his later one of the prophet of national decline."

Gilmour achives his objective quite well.His Kipling -- as I believe is true of the actual Kipling -- was NOT a jingoistic rascist (although, to be sure, certain lines of his taken as they say out of context could be stretched and cited for the opposite conclusion). Yes, Kipling was a Victorian Englishman who grew up amidst, and believed in, the glory of the British Empire.But, as Gilmour persuasively writes, the empire Kipling touted and valued was a civilizing, even humanitarian, force -- an empire of "peace and justice, quinine and canals, railways and vaccinations".His model of empire had no place for the missionary zeal to transform all the Empire's subjects into brown or black (depending on their class) fish-and-chippers or public-school-educated Church-of-Englanders.Moreover, to Kipling, it was the altruistic responsibility of the wealthy, civilized haves of the world (principally Great Britain and the United States) to relieve suffering and improve the lot in life of the myriad have nots.

Gilmour's biography shows, without explicit lecturing, that Kipling was not a stock "stiff-upper-lip" Victorian cardboard cut-out; he was human, with weaknesses he sought both to overcome and to mask, and with a strength of character that ultimately more than redeems him.

Gilmour does not ignore, but he does not dwell on, the literary side of Kipling.For that, the reader must go elsewhere.But for a sensitive yet objective picture of "Kipling as a figurehead of his country and his age", I don't know where else one should or would care to look.

Overlooked Today, But a Towering Figure in His Time
Rudyard Kipling, according to David Gilmour's authoritative 'The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling' was a first-class political hater and author of children's books, as well as the virtual embodiment of the British Empire. Kipling was considered the Imperial Laureate, although he would have refused the post had it existed as he did all government posts - not in his line at all.

Kipling lived much of the first half of his life in the Empire - he spent his early years in India, except for a horrid stretch when he was boarded back in England by his parents who stayed in British India, and later lived off-and-on in South Africa. Kipling loved the Empire and its civilizing mission (up to a point - he did not favor Christian religious proselytizing), but oddly was not that fond of England or the English.

Gilmour paints a portrait of Kipling as a thorough-going reactionary, a pessimist, a virulent opponent of women's suffrage, Irish Home Rule, nearly all politicians (he especially hated Liberals, but also accused Winston Churchill of `political whoring'), trade unions, and imperial wavering of any kind.

'The Long Recessional' (the title refers both to his poem written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the decline of the Empire) is not so much a history of Kipling's literary works as it is his leading role in promoting the Empire through his literature. Readers seeking detailed literary analyses had best look elsewhere, but should read this book first to understand what it was that Kipling was so all-fired angry about most of the time. Kipling was something of a negative "prophet"; he saw the coming decline of the Empire and viewed as willful surrender, he saw the coming Great War and watched his countrymen fail to prepare or take a firm stand against 'the Hun', and he saw the coming Second World War and the repeated lack of preparation (he died before that war actually occurred).

Kipling suffered great personal unhappiness from the death of his first daughter at age 6, to a seemingly unhappy marriage with Kipling as the henpecked husband and the death of his son in one of those insane headlong infantry assaults on the German trenches at the Battle of Loos. Kipling's dour personality in most of his last quarter-century of life may to some extent be attributed to a misdiagnosed (and thus mistreated) duodenal ulcer that caused him great pain - once it was correctly diagnosed in 1933, Kipling's pain departed and his personality revived.

Kipling's writings were enormously influential in his time, probably to an extent difficult for the modern reader to grasp given over as we are to the visual and the aural. After the Boer War he turned his pen more and more toward political ends and a bitter-tipped pen it was. Today Kipling is more remembered for his children's classics such asThe Jungle Books (Signet Classics). His Plain Tales from the Hills explores India's impact on the British who lived there and in particular the soldiers who sometimes fought and died there.

Salmon Rushdie has summarized it best when he stated, "There will always be plenty in Kipling that I will find difficult to forgive; but there is also enough truth in these stories to make them impossible to ignore."

Gilmour brings Kipling back to life for some 300 pages; 'The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling' is a rewarding reading experience about a man mostly overlooked today, but of towering importance in his time.

could be much better
I've always enjoyed Kipling's poetry, and have long known that a careful reading of his writings prove that many of the less pleasant things promoters of political correctness have to say about him are not true, or at least not true in the sense they understand their condemnations, so I was glad to come across and read this book.

It goes over the stations of Kipling's life: he childhood in India, a country he never stopped loving (Hindi and not English was his mother tongue), boarding school in England, life as a journalist in India, becoming the unofficial poet laureate of the soldier and Empire, his friendships with leading politicians, his marriage to an American, and his disillusionment and embitterment with politics and politicians after the First World War, in which his son died in his first battle.In this book Kipling is not portrayed as the ogre that some insist he was, but he does come across as very narrow-minded, as a man who was an exceptional poet, but out of his depth when he opined about matters like the Irish and their grievances.

And yet, I found this book to be a disappointment.Ideas were rarely fully explained; when poems are discussed, only such short passages that don't allow a good understanding are quoted.Kipling's belief that war with Germany was inevitable is uncritically seen as a sign of prophecy; when in fact it may have been more of a self-fulfilling prophecy common to his times and class.Nor are Ireland and Kipling's radical solutions for Ireland's troubles described with any nuance; the author doesn't more than scrape the surface of the topics he touches.Before I would draw any conclusions about Kipling, I would want to read other books as well.

I can only recommend this book to you if you're a high school student who has to write a report on Kipling; otherwise there must be better.

Brilliant study of a brilliant man
Few have doubted Kipling's literary genius but for much of the 20th century progressive opinion has caricatured him as the bard of racism, the poet of savagery, the versifier of militarism. Gilmour focuses on Kipling's complex relationship with the British Empire, and shows that these caricatures do not do justice to the poet's nuanced views. To take only one example, Kipling was perfectly aware of the foibles of his fellow Anglo-Indians, and he often paid tribute to the nobility of ordinary Indians. But he was also aware that British rule over the Subcontinent was a great force for peace and stability. The Bloomsbury set jeered his views but he was proven tragically right after Indian independence, which resulted in a bloodbath. Let us hope that Kipling is not proven even more correct in the event of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan.

Examines not only his writing, but his world
Rudyard Kipling was both a great writer and a representative figure of the British Empire, dabbling in both politics and exploration and winning the Nobel Prize in literature. This biography is the first to examine not only his writing, but his world: The Long Recessional considers the history of his times and provides a lively, revealing probe of the man's changes. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Rich Brat Turns Real
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I first read this when I was seven years old, and I can't say that it made much impression on me. But future readings, up to my present age of 67, have convinced me that the story is a good one, and the characters are strong and believable. A rich brat who has been saying it would be fun for the liner he is on to collide with a small fishing boat has exactly that happen--but the fishing boat survives, and the brat falls into a new life in which he is expected to pull his full share of the load.

At first he bristles with threats and promises, but nothing changes his situation. Work he will, or eat he will not. By the end--oops, I was headed for a spoiler.

Just read it, and enjoy the characters and plot, remembering as you do so that Kipling has said that "the magic is in the words." He was extremely conscious of what words he used, and since I have been reading him since I was five, I internalized that saying long before I became a writer myself. The magic is in the words, and you will enjoy the words used in this book, unless you have a totally tin ear for dialogue.

One of Kipling's best, written while he was in love with the United States.

Kindle Review: Wonderful Classic Short Story abut the Sea and the Men who Work in it
My favorite Rudyard Kipling story and atypical for him. Upbuilding coming-of-age story about a rich kid who was washed overboard and picked up by a fishing schooner and made to work. Ultimately likeable main character who improves himself. Very readable and full of action. The only issue affecting the interest of younger readers this story's use of phonetic spelling to reflect the colloquial pronunciations of the various characters from Gloucester, Mass, Newfoundland, Portugal, etc.

This free March 17, 2006 Kindle edition was very readable, no glaring editing errors and only the usual margin issues.

I hadn't written very many reviews. However, in reviewing Kindle reading material, I was sorry to see so few reviews of Kindle versions, especially when comparing two or more similar choices. So I am ramping up my reviews while I have the opportunity. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Art as a Metaphor for Writing
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Rudyard Kipling wrote twice of his abandonment, with his sister, at a children's boarding house when they returned to India. Instead of saying goodbye and giving the children at least some sense of closure, they simply vanished, leaving the bewildered children, there for health and education, grieving and lost.

Kipling used what happened there in a long short story, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and as the opener of The Light that Failed. He used his protagonist's painting as a metaphor for his own writing, giving the sensitive reader a good picture of the agony of a writer who can't find a way to say what he means. The use of art was reasonable, in that he had several uncles by marriage who were painters. This brings up the question of why he and his sister were left as they were, when there were family members who would have been glad to take them. This question will be left forever unanswerable.

This novel, which along with Kim is probably the reason he got a Nobel Prize for Literature, is painful to read, but also inspiring in its picture of the young man who just wouldn't give up no matter how difficult things got. There is one change from the truth in Light that is not present in Black Sheep: In Black Sheep the girl is his sister; in The Light that Failed the girl is transformed into a potential sweetheart.

This should be read by everyone who is interested in the creative process as it is seen by the creator of the work. ... Read more

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British India seen from inside
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Kipling had one thing in common with Fox Mulder--he wanted to believe. But he never seemed quite sure of WHAT he wanted to believe. This collection of short stories, most of them published in British India during his stay there before he returned to England the long way around, have been called thoroughly realistic.

The stories are powerful, but he always manages to punch holes in the ghost story before the story ends. His sister was a trance medium who was once involved in a complex three-cornered correspondence--that means that three different mediums, who theoretically do not know one another and have no interaction, each receive part of the message, which must then be assembled by the researchers. He wanted to believe in survival after death, especially after the death of his favorite daughter followed years later by the World War I death of his only son, eighteen years old and as blind as Kipling without his glasses.

But when he wrote this book, these tragedies had not yet occurred, and most of the stories end happily. Some, though, do not. Go and read the book. You'll be glad you did. ... Read more

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"Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!"

A classic story from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, adapted and illustrated by award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney, this is the tale of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a fearless young mongoose.

Customer Reviews (22)

Book
My 9 year old daughter hd to read this for her summer reading. She read it to her younger sisters, so now I have order the DVD as well.

Rikki- Tikki- Tavi hard cover book
I purchased this book for my boyfriend for a Christmas present.
He was pleasingly suprised.
He said that reading it brought back alot of wonderful childhood memories for him.
It is beautifully illustrated.
We are extremely happy with the hardcover copy of this book. It`ll make a great addition to our library.

Wonderful story for even big kids
One of my all time favorite stories as a child and now I am passing it along to my friend's little boy.The drama is just as spine tingling now as 50+ years ago.

An Excellent Stepping-Stone to the Original Story
There are two schools of thought regarding illustrated adaptations of literary classics.One school holds that stories that are simplified for early listeners can be ruined in the process, because the listener's first experience doesn't contain the beauty and depth of the original.The second school holds that well-written adaptations can serve as stepping-stones to original works, making them more accessible.I am still between the two camps, but in making decisions about specific classic titles I ask two questions:

1. Is the story content appropriate for a reading level that can't yet master the language in the original?If not, it's probably better to wait until a child is linguistically and emotionally ready for the original.
2. Is the quality of the adaptation high enough that it entices, rather than discourages, readers to explore further?If it can't stand on its own merit but only piggybacks on the original's popularity, it may cause the reader to associate the original with mediocrity.

The answer to question 1 will be different for different families and readers.I would say that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a young Indian mongoose who is adopted by a British family and drives the venomous snakes out of their home and garden, may appeal more to boys than girls, and parents of sensitive children should certainly screen this book since it contains dramatic animal violence, multiple attempted murders by talking snakes (in one of these a child is threatened), and Rikki-Tikki's merciless execution of many cobras in their eggs.But this story is a classic for good reason: Rikki-Tikki exemplifies courage, loyalty, defending the helpless, and a relentless commitment to oppose the evil snakes regardless of the cost.Every child will want a pet mongoose after experiencing this story.

As for question 2, Pinkney's adaptation uses modern language, retaining almost none of Kipling's masterful language, but telling the story very well.What really makes this book are his lavish, exuberant watercolor paintings which draw the reader in and dramatize the story in a very vivid way.

I recommend this story for children who are able to tolerate suspense and conflict, who have no reptile phobias, and who are transitioning out of the picture-book stage but are not yet ready for Kipling's sometimes challenging language.Although this book could stand on its own as a part of a home library, I recommend that it ought to be followed very closely by a version with the original language.Once the story is understood, this method will provide a great opportunity for vocabulary expansion and an appreciation of more elevated prose.

Great choice !
The classic Kipling tale of the fiercely protective and dangerous little mongoose is still captivating for children. The illustrations are subdued, which actually made it less frightening for my 3 year old grandson - not entirely a bad thing. It is a fun read-aloud as you can use "voices" so effectively. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Rudyard Kipling in an afternoon
Far too many mainstream biographies seem to be written primarily for besotted descendents of the subject or for graduate students plumbing the depths of minutiae for footnotes to their dissertation. I applaud those few series, such as Penguin's Lives and the Overlook Press Illustrated Lives, that seek to present in less than 200 pages an informative yetcritical overview of the lives of noteworthies from the (admittedly) English-speaking, Eurocentric civilization in which we live. "Rudyard Kipling" by Kingsley Amis is one of the rare but exemplary short biographies that, in a more ideal world, would find much wider circulation than the more frequently published 500-page doorstops.

Amis was often thought of as a sort of curmudgeon of British letters, but here he is anything but.Indeed, he clearly is a fan of Kipling, both of his stories and of his writing.For example, Amis calls "Kim" "one of the greatest novels in the language."(I happen to concur with Amis' judgment -- confession, every ten years I re-read "Kim" for the sheer joy of it -- but I am gratified to learn that someone so much more qualified than I holds the same opinion.)Yet the book is balanced and critical.Amis does not ignore the unpleasant, arrogant, imperialist aspects of Kipling's character.But he is also sensitive to Kipling's insecurities and all-so-human weaknesses, and he highlights the determination, drive, moral code of conduct (although we, nearly a century later, may nitpick with that code), and basic humanity that ultimately made Kipling one of the most public of all Anglo-American literary figures and, at least to my mind, one of the more admirable ones.

In addition to more traditional biographical matters, Amis also touches on literary aspects of Kipling's works.The book is very liberally sprinkled with photographs and illustrations.I believe it is now o.o.p., but it appears to be readily available in the secondary market, and for anyone interested in an intelligent overview of Kipling it is worth the time and effort to acquire and to read (although the latter certainly requires no undue time and effort). ... Read more

Product Description
This concise Townsend Library anthology features classic short stories which have been carefully edited to be more accessible to today's students. Each story includes an enticing preview and a lively afterword. Acclaimed by educators nationwide, the Townsend Library is helping millions of young adults discover the pleasure and power of reading. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
Rich, varied collection of 14 extraordinary Victorian and Edwardian crime stories, many never before published in book form: Kipling’s "The Return of Imray"; "The Tragedy of the Life Raft" by Jacques Futrelle; "The Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle, plus hard-to-find tales by G. K. Chesterton,Catherine L. Pirkis, Silas K. Hocking, others.
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Customer Reviews (5)

A delightful tribute to Victorian sleuths
I love the format of this collection. Each story has a short preface that gives some biographical info and tells how the story fits into the early history of detective fiction. So you get a bit of an education along with your thrills and chills.

The editor was interested in showing the amazing variety of investigators that arose in the wake of Sherlock Holmes. We meet with lady detectives, clergymen sleuths, scientific investigators, detectives both brave and cowardly - and even an agent who employs a Hindu snake charmer to see into mysteries.

There are fourteen stories, and I liked every one very much, with two exceptions (but what editor can please everyone?). The creators of famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown and The Thinking Machine are in company with authors long since forgotten. And the mix is very successful.

The stories illustrate the incredibly fertile imaginations of Victorian and Edwardian mystery writers. A lecture on sea worms leads to the apprehension of a murderer. A fly fisherman solves a crime among butterfly collectors. A house ghost who has behaved well for centuries suddenly turns violent.

Fans of vintage detection can pick up some fascinating facts, such as who invented the inverted detective story and who first filled the void when Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Holmes. And those who take pleasure in historic atmosphere will find plenty of it here.

Detection by Gaslight is a fun introduction to Victorian mystery writing - but also a welcome supplement for those who have read widely in the period.

Nice collection
A collection put together by mystery authority Douglas Greene, this 258-page volume gathers stories from writers as well known as Kipling ("The Return of Imray") and G.K. Chesterton ("The Eye of Apollo"). Also included is A. Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches".

Other writers and stories:

Robert W. Chambers -- The Purple Emperor
R. Austin Freeman -- The Dead Hand
Jacques Futrelle -- The Tragedy of the Life Raft
E. and H. Heron -- The Story of Baelbrow
Headon Hill -- The Divinization of the Zagury Capsules
Silas K. Hocking --A Perverted Genius
L.T. Meade & Robert Eustace -- Mr. Bovey's Unexpected Will
Arthur Morrison -- The Case of the Lost Foreigner
Baroness Orczy -- The York Mystery
Catherine L. Pirkis -- The Ghost of Fountain Lane
George R. Sims -- The Haverstock Hill Murder

The book also contains a two-page introduction by mystery authority Douglas G. Greene, as well as interesting under-one-page biographical notes about each author.

Recommended as a nice mind-trip to Victorian times for mystery readers, for a more-than-reasonable price.

Eclectic Collection
Editor Douglas Greene has gathered an eclectic set of Victorian mysteries that is sure to please fans of Victorian literature. Many of these authors are long out of print, and there were several with whom I was completely unfamiliar.

There were of course, stories by Doyle, Orczy and Chesterton to represent the more traditional favorites--Chesterton's "The Eye of Apollo" is especially excellent. Several of the other stories were surprisingly deep and well-written, though there were also a few truly dreadfully written stories, that were quite popular in their day, and reading them was fun in a different way. (I'll not give my opinion as to which stories were which, so as not to influence other readers.)

Overall, this is an excellent set of Victorian stories, giving a wide range of styles and tastes, with a short biography of the author at the start of the story. For anyone who enjoys Victorian lit, these stories (especially the lesser known gems among them) will make a wonderful read.

There's always only one Holmes.
This is an anthology of detective stories in Victorian era, when Holmes and Watson were actively investigating. However, Holmes fans will still be rather disappointed because most are featuring rather commonplacedetectives showing off in front of the dumb. Nevertheless, there is stillsome intelligence in the detectives, which is rarely found in their modernworld collegues.

Superlative collection
Having spent years combing the used bookstores from Maine to Florida for Victorian era detective fiction, I can vouch for the superlative quality of this collection.You would probably have to time-travel in order to find so many intriguing stories all in one place-including a rare gem by R. Austin Freeman whichapparently has never been published before in the United States. The editor is Edgar award-winning author Douglas G. Greene, considered by many the foremost authority on classic detective fiction today.The introductory essay alone is worth the price of the book. Thanks again, Dover-and thanks again, Douglas Greene. ... Read more