The Light That Failed, Rudyard Kipling
The Light That Failed, Rudyard Kipling
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The Light That Failed

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Narrator: various readers

Unabridged: 8 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2006

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

Wellknown war correspondent and artist Dick Heldar returns to London and falls in love with his childhood sweetheart, Maisie. Then he learns he is going blind due to a war injury. As his vision fails, he must choose between the love of a woman and the love of the men who stood by him at the front.

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 Katie on October 07, 2019

I enjoyed this one, though not quite as much as Kim. The characters are very intriguing and some of the themes it deals with, especially around unrequited love, art and loss of sight, are really interesting. However, I found the ending (indeed, both endings, for it has an alternative one as well as......more

Goodreads review by Erik on July 12, 2011

After seminary graduation and moving my possessions back from New York City to Illinois, I was invited to visit Norway by family there, my first visit since 1962. Most of the time I stayed with Mother in her apartment in the Majorstua neighborhood in Oslo, not far from Vigland Park. Arriving, travell......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on May 07, 2013

Oh, the works that get passed over. Some of the greatest work of the greatest authors is ignored because it's missing some of the charm of their more popular works. Rudyard Kipling may be known best for The Jungle Book, Kim, and Captain Courageous, but he possessed a deeper observation of the world......more

Goodreads review by Robin on March 13, 2014

The Light That Failed took me into a different realm of Kipling's writing. It's the tale of an artist who draws what he sees of war, and then, as his eyesight is failing, sets out to complete his Melancholia. I won't give any more spoilers than that, except to say that his portrayals of the friendshi......more

Goodreads review by Simon on September 18, 2012

Originally published on my blog here in October 2000. One of Kipling's most interesting novels, The Light that Failed hovers on the edge of sentimentality for most of its pages, never quite slipping. Dick Heldar is an artist, who becomes successful through drawings of a war in Sudan for one of the Lo......more