Kim is Rudyard Kipling's most important single work: it is,by any standard, this poet's finest prose achievement. But it is even more than that because, while an important work of art, it emerges as an invaluable historical document. Published for the first time in 1901 the work of an Englishman who understood India as well as any western artist ever has, it stands beth between two centuries and between two cultures,East and West. It poses problems of empire building that confronted the world in the nineteenth century, and it poses problems of racial identity and justice that have preoccupied our own age. Written by the laureate of the British Empire,it is also a harbinger of the Empire's dissolution.These intrinsic values, and others, make Kim as significant tor history as it is for art...
One of the great adventure books of all time, KIM, first published in 1901, is Kipling"s last major work about india, a farewell look brimming with all the color and sound, squalor and splendor of that exotic land, Kim, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, is a mischievous worldly imp growing up in the walled city of Lahore, A secret mission for the British and a heartfelt bond with a Tibetan lama in search of a sacred river soon lead Kim into a life of spies and secrets, danger and high excitement. But KIM is more than a boy"s adventure, Written by the laureate of the British Empire, it is also a profound look at the differences between East and West. For the first time, a British writer understood India in all its complexity, mystery, and spirituality. Here are india"s bazaars, plains, mountains, and villages teeming with an astounding multiplicity of races, religions, and dialects. We feel the overpowering heat of the cities and the brutal cold of the hills; meet the veiled women; enter the harems; mingle with thieves, jugglers, beggars, and moneylenders...
RUDYARD KIPLING
Introduction:Kim and Kipling by Morton N. Cohen
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Bibliography