Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game
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'A brilliant jigsaw'
(Patrick Leigh Fermor, Spectator, Books of the Year )'This beautifully written and beguiling travel book will fascinate even those who have never read Kim'
(Scotsman )Product Description
This book is for all those who love Kim, that masterpiece of Indian life in which Kipling immortalized the Great Game. Fascinated since childhood by this strange tale of an orphan boy's recruitment into the Indian secret service, Peter Hopkirk here retraces Kim's footsteps across Kipling's India to see how much of it remains.
To attempt this with a fictional hero would normally be pointless. But Kim is different. For much of this Great Game classic was inspired by actual people and places, thus blurring the line between the real and the imaginary. Less a travel book than a literary detective story, this is the intriguing story of Peter Hopkirk's quest for Kim and a host of other shadowy figures.
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First Sentence
A GERMAN SNIPER'S bullet, intended to kill a young French officer in the First World War, instead buried itself in a book he was carrying in his breast pocket. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
A GERMAN SNIPER'S bullet, intended to kill a young French officer in the First World War, instead buried itself in a book he was carrying in his breast pocket. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I liked this Peter Hopkirk book for the same reason I've liked his others - *the Great Game* and *Foreign Devils On the Silk Route* - they're always exciting accounts of interesting, far away places and times. In this book, Hopkirk goes to the Indian subcontinent to try to trace the route taken in Kipling's *Kim* by the two main characters, Kim himself and his Tibetan monk friend/master. I liked the-indepth description of Lahore and Hopkirk's account of seeking out what landmarks remain from Kim's day - the kind of task many a modern backpacking traveller would enjoy recreating. The anecdotes are, as in all Hopkirk's books, fascinating and made me want to read more. The story of going to Umballa to find Strickland's bungalow (Strickland the master spy/adventurer of the Great Game in Kipling's stories) was especially evocative - the ruined Anglican church, the old bungalows now grown shabby and unkept, the possible location considered - all magical. Hopkirk enjoys himself throughout this book. The trip to the hill station of Simla is perhaps the best part of all, with Hopkirk turning up a lot of interesting information and speculation. The point of his book is to help you enjoy Kipling's *Kim* more, (as Dover Wilson's *What Happens in Hamlet* helps you enjoy that play the more). I thoroughly recommend it. The only place I think I differed with the author is the last chapter, where he quotes a forgotten novel speculating on what Kim would have thought about India's independence. (In the forgotten novel quoted, Kim joins the resistance movement!) I think the whole tenor of both Kipling's novel and Hopkirk's journey suggest the opposite, that Kim would have been terribly unfashionable today and regretted the passing of the Raj, and looked at India's shabby cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and yearned for the old Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, This is, of course, an awkward issue to handle but British officials of the Raj era were appalled by the corruption and ineptitude of India's politicians and the way the country became proverbial for poverty and I don't think there's anyway of getting around facing how people of a different era thought - I wish Hopkirk had tackled that. But this is just another example of how stimulating Hopkirk's book is. Take it with you on your trip to India, along with *Kim*, which Hopkirk so rightly point out is the most popular book to read by English speaking travellers to India.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" has been a favourite since childhood. This book sets out to discover who were the people behind Kipling's characters and the author's research has been meticulous and detailed, uncovering false assumptions by earlier researchers. However, I found the author's repeated self-deprecation irritating and unnecessary. There seemed to be a degree of repetition of thoughts, differently expressed, and I cannot decide if this was a literary device to underline the strength of the author's commitment or a way of padding out the narrative. It is still a good read and should be welcomed by all who read and appreciate Rudyard Kipling.
The book arrived in pristine condition.
The book arrived in pristine condition.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It took me fifty years to eventually read "Kim" with joy and enthusiasm, now I hope to retrace at least some of the route taken by Kim and the Lama. Peter Hopkirk's lovingly written book has done most of the work I expected to have to carry out myself.
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This item is obviously a photocopy - I trust it has not been dispatched by Amazon itself. Two photocopies out of three lately. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mark Lindesay
An excellent book
Being a lover of Kipling's Kim I looked forward to a history lesson on the events behind the novel
Peter Hopkirk did not disappoint - he really went to town on the detail and... Read more
Peter Hopkirk did not disappoint - he really went to town on the detail and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Paul Morris
Not a patch on his others
Peter Hopkirk is one of my favourite writers. His other works are books I treasure. Sadly, this is not from that stable. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2004 by Mr. Derrick Mabbott
a disappointing effort from peter hopkirk
Early on mr. hopkirk states this wasn't meant to be a book. I couldn't agree more with him. There is no book here. Read more
Published on 4 May 2001 by Peter Weber
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