Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
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Just So Stories

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Narrator: Jim Weiss

Unabridged: 3 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/24/2011


Synopsis

A dozen fables by one of the world’s great storytellers.
 
The twelve magical JUST SO STORIES tell, how the leopard got his spots? Why the rhinoceros  has his wrinkly skin? Why is a kangaroo very fast on land? Why won't cats come when they're called? And, how one curious elephant with a nose for trouble changed the lives of all elephants everywhere? Many of the tales are origin stories, explaining how an animal came to be the way it is. These delightful tales will hold the listener spellbound.

About The Author

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India to British parents on December 30, 1865. In 1871, Rudyard and his sister, Trix, aged three, were left to be cared for by a couple in Southsea, England. Five years passed before he saw his parents again. His sense of desertion and despair were later expressed in his story “Baa Baa, Black Sheep” (1888), in his novel The Light that failed (1890), and his autobiography, Something of Myself (1937). As late as 1935 Kipling still spoke bitterly of the “House of Desolation” at Southsea: “I should like to burn it down and plough the place with salt.”At twelve he entered a minor public school, the United Services College at Westward Ho, North Devon. In Stalky and CO. (1899) the myopic Beetle is a self-caricature, and the days at Westward Ho are recalled with mixed feelings. At sixteen, eccentric and literary, Kipling sailed to India to become a journalist. His Indian experiences led to seven volumes of stories, including Soldiers Three (1888) and Wee Willie Winkie (1888).At twenty-four he returned to England and quickly tuned into a literary celebrity. In London he became close friends with an American, (Charles) Wolcott Balestier, with whom he collaborated on what critics called a “dime store novel.” Wolcott died suddenly in 1891, and a few weeks later Kipling married Wolcott’s sister, Caroline. The newlyweds settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wrote The Jungle Book (1895), and most of Captains Courageous (1897). By this time Kipling’s popularity and financial success were enormous.In 1899 the Kipling’s settled in Sussex, England, where he wrote some of his best books: Kim (1901), Just So Stories (1902), and Puck of Pooks Hill (1906). In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for literature. By the time he died, on January 18 1936, critical opinion was deeply divided about his writings, but his books continued to be read by thousands, and such unforgettable poems and stories as “Gunga Din,” “If,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” have lived on in the consciousness of succeeding generations.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bionic Jean on November 19, 2024

Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, originally published in 1902, are perennial favourites, and can be read by adults and children alike. They are known as "pourquoi" stories; in this case fantasies about the origin of individual wild animals who live in different countries. The seed of the idea lies......more

Goodreads review by Thibault on November 03, 2022

Very creative, clever and well written little children’s stories like “how the camel got his hump.” They’re not scientifically correct, it’s just some good old fashioned fun.......more

Goodreads review by Dannii on January 02, 2018

This was an adorably sweet collection of stories, aimed at younger readers and all centring around the themes of animals. Whilst not scientifically correct in the least, this offered the reader a series of fun anecdotes about how various different animals got their defining features, such as a leopa......more

Goodreads review by Michael on April 04, 2017

All these tales are like Aesop's fables about how various animals got their characteristic features. They are beautiful short tales - most likely derived from folk legends that Kipling heard during his time in Africa and India - but still full of humour and subtle wisdom. Unlike Kim, his pro-empire......more

Goodreads review by Ken on July 06, 2020

I've got a vague memory reading these short stories as a kid, a quick Google search also revealed an early 90's BBC animated series which looked familiar and probably the reason for owning thr book. Out of the 12 stories in the collection, my favourites were the ones that I had the strongest recollec......more


Quotes

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature