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Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Paperback, 1987)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherPenguin Books LTD
ISBN-139780140432817
eBay Product ID (ePID)91801327
Product Key Features
Book TitleKim
AuthorRudyard Kipling
FormatPaperback
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year1987
GenreBiographies & True Stories
Number of Pages368 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height181mm
Item Width111mm
Item Weight196g
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorRudyard Kipling
Series TitleClassics
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited Kingdom
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Ratings and reviews
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- 29 Apr, 2023
Kim is one of the greatest teenage adventure stories ever written. Kim leaps across the European-Indian divide, and learns to play the Great Game.
Kim is one of the finest adventure tales ever written. It tells the story of an Irish soldier's orphan son who, growing up half-wild in the bazaars of late C19th Lahore, has the ability to mix fluently with Indians of many castes. This rare talent enables Kipling to give vivid descriptions of the great variety of people and religions in the city, and to do in imagination what was almost impossible to achieve in practice: to cross the divide between European & Indian with seemless ease. Kim's early mentor is Mahbub Ali, a roguish travelling horse-trader, who secretly works for British intelligence. However, part of Kim's soul also belongs to a holy Buddhist lama, whom he serves as a young chela, or servant-disciple. The lama has journeyed far from Tibet, in search of unknown location of the Buddha's River of the Arrow. In an early adventure, Kim follows him out of Lahore and down the Great Trunk Road, also carrying a secret message for Mahbub Ali. However, Kim & the lama run into an encamped British regiment. The British claim Kim as their own, and pack him off to an elite school. There, Kim must endure the dreary discipline of formal education, and wait patiently for his mind and body to mature. However, Kim gets to cut loose during the long school holidays. When he's not following his lama, he's training in skilled observation under spy trainer Lurgan Sahib, famously by playing `Kim's game' against an almost equally talented Indian boy, and by heading out to the bazaar at night, with his face darkened by walnut juice. All too soon, Kim is ready for the Great Game, played by the agents of the Great Powers, Britain & Russia, along the North-West Frontier. The lama is persuaded to look for his river in the hills, where some Russian `geologists' are `surveying' the Himalayas. Kim's secret mission is to prevent the Russians from reaching an understanding with the powerful hill warlords, who continually threaten to invade the Indian plains. Although Kipling encourages the reader to admire the talents, the courage, and the exciting lives led by those defending the British regime in India, he is equally clear about how the British use people, and the price they pay. Very few Britons can pass as Indian, so Indian agents (& Kim) take all the risks. The lama's wealth is used to pay for Kim's education, even though this only serves the British. Had Kim been of gentlemanly English descent, it is doubtful that he would have been employed on risky missions at so young an age. Despite the ultimate operational success of Kim's adventure, he feels remorse and a loss of innocence, due to his deception in leading the lama where Kim's British orders take him. Many Anglo-Indian authors wrote about the great divide between European and Indian. After probing this question with numerous short stories for 15 years, Kipling's fresh, energetic, and loveable character, Kim, gave him the window he needed to explore the great `unknowable' India for his European & American readership, at least in our imagination.Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
