Author | Rudyard Kipling |
---|---|
Illustrator | H. R. Millar |
Language | English |
Genre | spy and picaresque novel |
Publisher | McClure's Magazine (in serial) and Macmillan & Co (single volume) |
Publication date | October 1901 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (serial and hardcover) |
Pages | 368 |
OCLC | 236914 |
Kim is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road." [1] The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The novel popularized the phrase and idea of the Great Game. [2]
The story is set after the Second Anglo-Afghan War (which ended in 1881), but before the Third (fought in 1919), probably in the period of 1893 to 1898. [3]
Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier (Kimball O'Hara Sr., a former colour sergeant) and a poor Irish mother (a former nanny in a colonel's household) who have both died in poverty. Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim lives by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. He occasionally works for Mahbub Ali, a Pashtun horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service. Kim is so tanned and immersed in the local culture that few realise he is white.
Kim befriends an aged Tibetan lama on a quest to free himself from the Wheel of Things by finding the legendary "River of the Arrow". Kim becomes his chela (disciple) and accompanies him on his journey, initially walking along the Grand Trunk Road. On the way, Kim learns about the Great Game and is recruited by Mahbub Ali to carry a message to the head of the British Secret Service in Umballa.
Kim encounters and recognises his father's regiment on the march. Curious, he sneaks in when the soldiers camp for the night. He is caught and mistaken for a thief, but the regimental chaplain identifies Kim by his Masonic certificate, which is sewn into an amulet that he wears around his neck. Upon learning of Kim's connection to the regiment, the lama insists that the boy comply with the chaplain's plan to send him to an English school in Lucknow. The lama, a former abbot, pays for Kim's education.
Throughout his years at school, Kim remains in contact with the holy man he has come to love. He is also trained in espionage (to be a surveyor) while on vacation from school by Lurgan Sahib, a sort of benevolent Fagin, [4] at his jewellery shop in Simla. As part of his training, Kim is given brief looks at a tray full of mixed objects and notes which have been added or taken away, a pastime still called Kim's Game, also called the Jewel Game. Other parts of this training are disguise and the careful study of the Indian population, and the characteristic dress, behaviour and "even how they spit" in order to go undercover or to uncover those in disguise. He also accompanies Mahbub Ali on one school break; when he proves apt at spying on and evaluating how to capture the city of Bikanir, Mahbub Ali persuades his superior, a skeptical Colonel Creighton, that the boy is ready.
After three years of schooling, Kim begins to take part in the Great Game, joining the Secret Service at 20 rupees a month. Kim rejoins the lama and at the behest of Kim's superior, Hurree Chunder Mookherjee, they make a trip to the Himalayas so they can try to find out what a couple of Russian intelligence agents, one Russian and one Frenchman, are doing there. Kim obtains maps, papers and other important items from the Russian agents, who are working to undermine British control of the region. Mookherjee persuades the Russian agents to hire him as a guide. When the Russian strikes the lama in the face, Kim attacks the man, then flees when shot at, while the outraged porters abandon the party and take the lama away to safety.
The lama realises that he has gone astray. His search for the River of the Arrow should be taking place in the plains, not in the mountains, and he orders the porters to take them back. Here Kim and the lama are nursed back to health after their arduous journey. Kim delivers the Russian documents to Hurree, and a concerned Mahbub Ali comes to check on Kim.
The lama finds his river and is convinced he has achieved Enlightenment, and wants to share it with Kim.
Considered by many to be Kipling's masterpiece, opinion is varied about its consideration as children's literature or not. [6] [7] Roger Sale, in his history of children's literature, concludes "Kim is the apotheosis of the Victorian cult of childhood, but it shines now as bright as ever, long after the Empire's collapse..." [8]
About a reissue of the novel in 1959 by Macmillan, the reviewer writes "Kim is a book worked at three levels. It is a tale of adventure...It is the drama of a boy having entirely his boy's own way...and it is the mystical exegesis of this pattern of behaviour..." This reviewer concludes "Kim will endure because it is a beginning like all masterly ends..." [9] [10]
Nirad C. Chaudhuri considered it the best story (in English) about India – noting Kipling's appreciation of the ecological force of "the twin setting of the mountains and the plain...an unbreakable articulation between the Himalayas and the Indo-Gangetic plain". [11]
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Kim No. 78 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. [12] In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel". [13]
The town of Kim, Colorado, is named in honour of the book.[ citation needed ]
British spy and defector Kim Philby was born Harold Philby in Ambala, then in British India. His father, a member of the Indian Civil Service, gave him the nickname 'Kim' on account of his fraternisation with the servants.[ citation needed ]
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
The Jungle Book is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by wolves. Most stories are set in a forest in India; one place mentioned repeatedly is "Seeonee" (Seoni), in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of school stories whose three juvenile protagonists display a know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority. It was first published in 1899 after the stories had appeared in magazines during the previous two years. It is set at a school dubbed "the College" or "the Coll.", which is based on the actual United Services College that Kipling attended as a boy.
The term pundit was used in the second half of the 19th century to denote native Indian surveyors used by the British to secretly explore regions north of British India. The Pundit was the code-name for one of the first native explorers, Nain Singh, who was originally a schoolteacher. His accomplishments were so remarkable that the whole group of around twenty native explorers became known as the Pundits.
John Lockwood Kipling was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling.
The Far Pavilions is an epic novel of British-Indian history by M. M. Kaye, published in 1978, which tells the story of a British officer during the British Raj. There are many parallels between this novel and Rudyard Kipling's Kim that was published in 1900: the settings, the young English boy raised as a native by an Indian surrogate mother, "the Great Game" as it was played by the British Empire and Imperial Russia. The novel, rooted deeply in the romantic epics of the 19th century, has been hailed as a masterpiece of storytelling. It is based partly on biographical writings by the author's grandfather, as well as her knowledge of and childhood experiences in India. It has sold millions of copies, caused travel agents to create tours that visited the locations in the book, and inspired a television adaptation and a musical play.
"The White Man's Burden" (1899), by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. Originally written to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the jingoistic poem was replaced with the sombre "Recessional" (1897), also a Kipling poem about empire.
Declare (2000) is a supernatural spy novel by American author Tim Powers. The novel presents a secret history of the Cold War, and earned several major fantasy fiction awards.
Kim's Game is a game or exercise played by Scouts, the military, and other groups, in which a selection of objects must be memorised. The game develops a person's capacity to observe and remember details. The name is derived from Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim, in which the protagonist plays the game during his training as a spy.
Kim is a 1950 adventure film made in Technicolor by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Victor Saville and produced by Leon Gordon from a screenplay by Helen Deutsch, Leon Gordon and Richard Schayer, based on the classic 1901 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.
Plain Tales from the Hills is the first collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. Out of its 40 stories, "eight-and-twenty", according to Kipling's Preface, were initially published in the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore, Punjab, British India between November 1886 and June 1887. "The remaining tales are, more or less, new."
Kim is a 1984 British television film directed by John Davies and based on Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim. The film stars Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, John Rhys-Davies, Nadira, Julian Glover, Jalal Agha and Ravi Sheth in the title role.
"Lispeth" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on 29 November 1886; its first appearance in book form was in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and it later appeared in subsequent editions of that collection. The tale is an interesting example of Kipling's attitudes to different races and cultures, which is less simple than many accounts of his beliefs allow.
The Game is the seventh book in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King, which focuses on the adventures of Russell and her partner and, later, husband, an aging Sherlock Holmes.
Kim is a unisex given name. It is also used as a diminutive or nickname for names such as Kimber, Kimberly, Kimberley, Kimball and Kimiko. In Kenya, it is short for various male names such as Kimutai and Kimani. In Vietnam, it is also a unisex name.
The Civil and Military Gazette was a daily English-language newspaper founded in 1872 in British India. It was published from Lahore, Simla and Karachi, some times simultaneously, until its closure in 1963. The archives are owned by Lahore-based businessman Humayun Naseer Shaikh and have been digitized by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Citizens Archive of Pakistan.
The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Jamyang Norbu, originally published in India in 1999.
Alexander Malcolm Jacob was a diamond and gemstone trader in Simla, India. Probably a Jacobite Christian, his grandfather was an engineer in Constantinople, and his father was the first soap manufacturer in the Ottoman Empire.
Kim is an adventure role-playing video game developed by British independent developer The Secret Games Company, based on the novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. The game allows the player to take control of the novel's young hero, the teenage beggar Kim, as he begins his practical training as a field agent working for British intelligence in "The Great Game". Along the way, Kim meets an aged Tibetan lama and adopts him as his traveling companion, joining his search for a spiritual river of healing. Carry secret messages for Mahbub Ali the charismatic horse trader and undercover British agent, dicker for food with street vendors, collect maps to speed your travel, and experience the wonder of the "te-rain" that connects British India from Lahore to Benares.
The 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the British writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) "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." He is the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and being aged 41, is its youngest recipient to date.
The Sussex edition is standard for Kipling's works. Noted critical editions include:
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