Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Paperback The Portable Kipling Book

ISBN: 0140150978

ISBN13: 9780140150971

The Portable Kipling

Select Format

Select Condition ThriftBooks Help Icon

Recommended

Format: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

$5.79
Save $21.21!
List Price $27.00
Almost Gone, Only 2 Left!

Book Overview

A Penguin Classic The Portable Kipling contains selections from The Jungle Books and Soldiers Three ; more than twenty stories, including " The Man Who Would Be King ," " The Cat that Walked by Himself ," " The Eye of Allah ,"and the unsettling " Mary Postgate" ; more than fifty poems; and three essays. The volume also includes a complete chronology and a critical introduction by Irving Howe that permits us to see the formal achievements of Kipling's work as well as to enjoy its abundant pleasures--not least of which is the sheer satisfaction of great storytelling.

Customer Reviews

5 ratings

Worth it just for page 604

The poems are great. There's nothing quite like an English poem. The Recessional is a hymn sung in churches around the world, but most have left off the last two verses. Not exactly PC and all, he describes the closing of a great era and the forgetting of the god who made them great. Of course, the poem of Gunga Din reveals a somewhat darker side to this golden age and needs to be understood for what it is. And, it's not my place to make anyone understand what that is, is. All that said, Kipling is a thrill to read as he plunges you into the gritty heat and sweat of war, exploration, and empire.

The Increasingly-Forgotten Forefather

Kipling has undeservedly been relegated to obscurity. He is the foundation of the modern-day action movie. His tight prose bespeaks his journalist background in a time when fewer and fewer writers can hone their craft in these jobs. This selection of his most famous and best work is a wonderful addition to anyone's library, especially if you're a Tolkien fan or interested in the Victorian period.

One of the Greats

Read anything by Kippling. He was the first to make poetry interesting for me in my early teens. The stories exposed me to a history and culture that was largely inaccessible otherwise, illustrating how to put oneself in another's shoes. There are moral lessons and insights throughout his entertaining work, from humor to drama. I can still quote elements of his poetry after 40 years, such as his rejection of racism, nationalism, and class: "There is neither breed, nor border, nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth." Thinking on this in the context of the poem, one understands that "strong" refers to integrity and courage, and that age and gender are irrelevant to these as well.

Kipling's stories and poems

Kipling is one of the most maligned of all authors. He was too clever, too successful, and too unfashionable in his beliefs to be anything other than derided and envied by his colleagues in the artistic world. That derision carries over to the present day in which Kipling is still regarded as a racist, an imperialist, and a crypto fascist. Actually, Kipling's views seem to me to have been similar to those of Winston Churchill, although he was more sympathetic than Churchill to the people under the British yoke of empire. Be that as it may, Kipling was a great writer of short stories and poems. "The Portable Library" offers a representative sample of his work, although any Kipling fan will take exception to excluded treasures. Did the editor inexcusably exclude Kipling's most famous poem? If "If" is in the book I haven't found it. And where is "Mowgli's Brothers" from "The Jungle Book" - perhaps Kipling's most famous and influential story, inspirer of Tarzan, the Boy Scouts, and half a dozen movies? Also missing is "Rikki-tikki-tavi" the tale of a fight between a mongoose and a cobra that has thrilled generations of children. "Fuzzy Wuzzy" isn't here either with those famous lines of admiration for a brave opponent, "So `ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your `ome in the Soudan; You're a pore benighted `eathen but a first-class fightin' man." Most of Kipling's classic stories are here: "The Man who Would be King" which became one of the best adventure movies ever made; "Dayspring Mishandled," a complex and difficult story of literary revenge; "The Church that Was at Antioch,"a tale of early Christianity that sums up the struggle between Jew and Gentile about as well as anything I have ever read; and a tender story of bi-racial love, "Without Benefit of Clergy." The stories included in this collection illustrate Kipling's enormous range - from barrooms and barracks in India to the workings of a future society. Kipling's poems are famously quotable: "Mandalay, Gunga Din,", and "Recessional." ("Lest we forget -- lest we forget!") Unlike most other writers of exotica such as Somerset Maugham (his rival as the best short story writer in English, in my humble opinion), Kipling was able to imagine himself as other than a modern Englishman. His ability to speak in the voice of his characters - be they a lowly Cockney soldier, a lonely old woman, a fuzzy-headed soldier of Allah, or a politician of the distant future - is unmatched. Despite the omission of several of Kipling's best works, this collection includes a number of gems that everyone should read. Smallchief

An excellent introductory sample of Kipling's work.

The only difficulty with collections of Kipling is that he was so prolific that some pieces must be left out. Since this book's very goal was to be "portable", it suffers slightly from this. But the stories included are generally well-chosen. They span Kipling's entire literary career and range of subjects, from early stories of India to a 1930's science-fiction story. I particularly enjoyed the hilarious "Village that Voted the Earth was Flat", the interview with Mark Twain (a classic), and the devious "Dayspring Mishandled", which were new to me. I was also introduced to the author's series of stories of Privates Ortheris, Mulvaney, and Learoyd by this book. I had previously read "Stalky and Company", and this was like "Stalky and Co. Join the Army". However, several amusing favorites from other books were missing, such as "The Ship That Found Herself" and the story about the Army's animals talking to each other. If you haven't read much Kipling and would like to be introduced to this teller of tales, by all means get this book. If you have read Kipling, be sure to give the Table of Contents a scan for stories you might have missed.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured