Kim, Rudyard Kipling
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
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Kim

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 10 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/03/2010

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

"In all India is no one so alone as I!"

Rudyard Kipling's Kim is the story of Kimball O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, who spends his childhood as a vagabond in Lahore. With an old Tibetan lama he travels through India, enthralled by the "roaring whirl" of the landscape and cities of richly colored bazaars and immense diversity of people.

The novel is a masterpiece of careful organization and skillfully manipulated narrative techniques. By portraying Kim's utter devotion to the lama and his ability to share the life of the common people intimately and unself-consciously, Kipling creates a vision of harmony—and of India—that unites the secular and the spiritual, the life of action with that of contemplation.

About Rudyard Kipling

Short-story writer, novelist, and poet Rudyard Kipling was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and was hailed as a literary heir to Charles Dickens. His most popular works include The Jungle Books, Kim, and "The Man Who Would Be King." Audiences love his romantic tales about the adventures of Englishmen in strange and distant parts of the world. Characteristic of Kipling is sympathy for the children's world, a satirical attitude toward pompous patriotism, and belief in the blessings and superiority of the British rule. Although he was widely regarded as Britain's unofficial poet laureate, Kipling refused the honor, as well as the Order of Merit.

Kipling was born in 1865 in British-ruled Bombay, India, where his father was an arts and crafts teacher. At age six, he was put in a London foster home, and it was here that he began writing, influenced by his pre-Raphaelite ancestors. When Kipling was thirteen, he entered United Services College, an expensive military boarding school. His poor eyesight and mediocre grades ended his hopes for a military career. These years are recalled in a lighter tone in his book Stalky & Co.

Kipling returned to India in 1882, where he worked as a journalist, an assistant editor, and an overseas correspondent. Seven years later, Kipling moved back to London and married Caroline Starr Balestier, the sister of an American publisher and writer. They moved to the United States but, dissatisfied with life in Vermont and distraught by the death of his daughter, Kipling moved his family back to England. Still restless, he poured his energy into writing and produced The Jungle Books.

During the Boer War, Kipling spent several months in South Africa. In 1901, he published Kim, which is widely considered his best novel. Kipling received the Nobel for Prize for Literature in 1907. The prestigious prize was awarded for his power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas, and remarkable talent for narration. Kipling died on January 18, 1936, in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Henry on March 15, 2024

Kim , 13, a lonely, British orphan boy, born in India, his widowed father, was in Queen Victoria's army, but he died, a hopeless, pathetic, drunk. Kim's full name is Kimball O'Hara, the poorest of the poor, who lives mostly, in the slum streets of Lahore, the Punjab (now part of Pakistan). Sometimes......more

Goodreads review by Michael on April 06, 2017

Although somewhat drowned in Orientalist ideals and British colonialism, Kim is an exciting tale of espionage and adventure for kids of all ages 9 to 99. It is an exciting read. I just with that Kipling had been a little less bigoted towards the Empire. Nonetheless, probably the peak of his writing......more

Goodreads review by Laurie on December 03, 2008

Kim served as inspiration for my novel "The Game", the seventh entry in the Mary Russell series. Feel free to come and join in the discussion, even if you come across this after December has passed--the discussion will remain open indefinitely for new thoughts and comments. Click for more inform......more

Goodreads review by Amit on June 25, 2019

The best work of Rudyard Kipling. In it, he explored many of his childhood memories of India, and it is generally considered to be his most successful full-length novel.......more

Goodreads review by Pam on September 19, 2024

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I was going to. When I was in school Kipling was largely dismissed as a colonialist and children’s writer. This is a much grander piece. Although Kim has sometimes been seen as a boy’s book, I can’t imagine any 12 year old reading it today. It has some a......more