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Review
'These wonderfully observed stories, woven round the lives of the Anglo-Indian community in the 1880s, expose the frailties of this quintessentially British society.' --The Good Book Guide, August 2008.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
This was Kipling's first published volume of fiction. The stories with their brevity and concentration of effect are a landmark in the history of the short story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was surprised to see some of the other reviewers' comments. To be honest I hadn't realised that it was an abridged version, but as I bought it simply to enjoy rather than for any teaching or other purpose, this didn't detract from the enjoyment.
I have been living in the Indian sub-continent for a while now and I found that these super tales transported me back to a bygone era. Familiar with some of the places mentioned perhaps helped in allowing my imagination to run along freely.
Kipling has a certain old-fashioned style of writing which some will find charming but that perhaps some might find slightly difficult - personally I enjoyed it and felt that it added to the atmosphere of the tales.
Look at the advice of some of the other reviewers, but from my perspective if you simply want a very pleasant book for your own enjoyment, to stir your imagination and to amuse you, I very definitely do recommend this.
I have been living in the Indian sub-continent for a while now and I found that these super tales transported me back to a bygone era. Familiar with some of the places mentioned perhaps helped in allowing my imagination to run along freely.
Kipling has a certain old-fashioned style of writing which some will find charming but that perhaps some might find slightly difficult - personally I enjoyed it and felt that it added to the atmosphere of the tales.
Look at the advice of some of the other reviewers, but from my perspective if you simply want a very pleasant book for your own enjoyment, to stir your imagination and to amuse you, I very definitely do recommend this.
32 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A fascinating collection of short stories from Rudyard Kipling, set and published during the time of the British Raj in India; a time of subalterns and tea planters, tiffin, picnics, riding and shooting, of bands playing, "The Roast Beef of England" and a government which never forgets and NEVER forgives, all played out under an unforgiving sun.
Every emotion is covered in this series of forty tales which reveal the deceit, faithlessness, shallowness, despair, mistrust, hate and petty jealousies rife among the British inhabitants of 'stations', 'Town' and 'Club' across India. Never mind the damn natives it's the damn rulers who need watching.
In 'The Rescue of Pluffles' we learn of an engaged subaltern called Pluffles who 'trusting to his own judgement' embarked on a foolish relationship with a Mrs Reivers, until the formidable Mrs Hauksbee (Mrs Reivers sworn enemy) embarked on, and won, the 'Seven Weeks War' to win him over 'for his fiancee'. The theme in this story is similar to the one in "Three and - an extra" where this time it is Mrs Hauksbee who attempts to "annex" a wayward husband, but fails, as his wife wins him back by....well....just by, "carrying herself superbly" at a dance and making the husband realise what a fool he was being.
In 'Thrown Away' we learn of the tragic tale of a young subaltern who had been brought up under the 'sheltered life system' and as such in an India where 'one must not take things too seriously' according to Kipling, he did just that, being a sensitive boy. The result was that the young man shot himself. The tragedy turns to comedy as Kipling and a Major discover the body and set about covering the suicide up.
'Lispeth' is a tale of the unrequited love between a lovely Hill-girl who had been brought up by an English Chaplain and his wife, called Elizabeth, and a young English traveller she found unconscious in the hills. The man promised to marry Lispeth when he returned so as not to hurt her feelings, but when Lispeth found out months later that it was a deception, returned angrily to her people and became a Hill-girl again, ending up a 'bleared, wrinkled creature'
'The Other Man' is a rather unpleasant tale about a Miss Gaurey who is made to marry a man thirty-five years her senior, the rather austere Colonel Schreidierling, even though she loved another. In marriage the girl deteriorated in health and looks and became a social outcast, 'her box very seldom had any cards in it'. However things look up for her when she learns that 'The Other Man', her lost love, who is in poor health, is visiting her town, Simla. Unfortunately when she goes to his tonga carriage he is sitting up inside, dead. Kipling helps cover up the incident to save the girl from scandal, however she later dies of a broken heart.
"Kidnapped" is a strange tell of a young Department man called Peythroppe who is prevented from entering on an unwise marriage through being kidnapped by "The Three Men" who take him, involuntarily at first it appears, on a shooting trip. The whole ruse is arranged by the formidable Mrs Hauksbee who must have been modelled on someone Kipling knew, so frequent are her appearances.
The comical side of life in the sub-continent is revealed in "The Taking of Lungtungpen" when a lovable Irish rogue called Private Mulvaney, who appears to be a friend of the author, relates the tale of how his patrol took the dacoits of Lungtungpen by surprise through launching an attack in the nude or in Mulvaney's own words, "as naked as Vanus".
The other thirty-three tales are just as fascinating, some of them funny, some of them tragic, all of them immensely readable and packed with many witty and memorable Kipling quotes, they provide a valuable insight into life in India when it was coloured red on the map.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I know that this review will more than likely get to appear on more than one other edition so I should point out that this is for the Capuchin Classics edition. It is some time since I last read an edition of this book, but it does look complete to me. There is a foreword by Griff Rhys Jones, and a short introduction by Anthony Lejeune.
If you have never read this before, or indeed if you are coming back to it years later, there is one thing to remember. Kipling was a journalist in India, and I know that some if not all of these pieces appeared in the paper he worked for. Due to that a lot of people don't seem to realise that these weren't really written for the public in this country, they were written for the entertainment of the British in the Raj. That is why this book was initially published in India, not here. That they did become so popular in this country shows the quality of Kipling's writing.
Bearing that in mind then, this is a truly great collection of tales about what it must have been like to live and work in India in the latter half of the 19th Century. A few of these tales are of a supernatural nature, and some are more native based, but the vast majority of them are about the British working in a foreign land. A lot of these tales are written as anecdotes, or pieces of gossip, and are vastly entertaining. Kipling doesn't hold back, with biting satire and some great humour. Taking in such things as the loves and working conditions abroad, incompetence, and people just not able to cope with the strange life, this is well worth reading if you want to get a grip on what the Empire was like, as well as great for those who just love a good read.
If you have never read this before, or indeed if you are coming back to it years later, there is one thing to remember. Kipling was a journalist in India, and I know that some if not all of these pieces appeared in the paper he worked for. Due to that a lot of people don't seem to realise that these weren't really written for the public in this country, they were written for the entertainment of the British in the Raj. That is why this book was initially published in India, not here. That they did become so popular in this country shows the quality of Kipling's writing.
Bearing that in mind then, this is a truly great collection of tales about what it must have been like to live and work in India in the latter half of the 19th Century. A few of these tales are of a supernatural nature, and some are more native based, but the vast majority of them are about the British working in a foreign land. A lot of these tales are written as anecdotes, or pieces of gossip, and are vastly entertaining. Kipling doesn't hold back, with biting satire and some great humour. Taking in such things as the loves and working conditions abroad, incompetence, and people just not able to cope with the strange life, this is well worth reading if you want to get a grip on what the Empire was like, as well as great for those who just love a good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Forty Sparkling Diamonds
In India there are the Plains and there are the Hills (the Himalayas, I believe). So there is something of a pun carried in the title "Plain Tales from the Hills". Read more
Published 10 months ago by Oliver Twist
practically perfect
Kipling has been criticised for jingoism. I can only imagine that his critics had never read this collection of short stories. Read more
Published 10 months ago by fabrice
What can I say about this classic?
Who am I to review this classic from the pen of Rudyard Kipling other than that I enjoyed it as tens of thousands of other readers must have done down the years.
Published on 15 May 2010 by Frenchie
abridged version, avoid !
I purchased the Echo Library edition
I was not aware that CHEAP EDITION meant ABRIDGED edition. Read more
I was not aware that CHEAP EDITION meant ABRIDGED edition. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2008 by marina
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