Kim (Oxford World's Classics)
by Rudyard Kipling
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rudyard KiplingEditor: Alan Sandison
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-01
ISBN: 818352057X
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Kim (Oxford World's Classics)
Book Review: Bloody awful
Summary: 3 Stars
The Times (of London) recently had a list of 100 books people should read, but don't. Kipling's _Kim_ was on the list. Having a passing familiarity with Kipling (his poetry I find a bit offensive, his The Jungle Book (Unabridged Classics) was fun, though), I thought I'd give this a try. I was terribly disappointed.
First, the language was overwrought - even for late 19th century writing, Kipling is over the top. An excerpt: "Thou wast wondering there in thy spirit what manner of thing thy soul might be. The seizure came of a sudden. I know. Who should know but I? Wither goest thou?" This wasn't vernacular English even in Kipling's day, and frankly was too much - particularly considering the social classes of the speakers. I made allowances for the pro-imperialist, pro-British (and vehemently anti-Indian) tone of the book given the author and time period, although I can see how this would rankle some. The story is also liberally peppered with colloquialisms in Hindi, Urdu and perhaps other languages; while this gives some flavor to the story, it may be a distraction to some. (I sort of enjoyed it.) The greatest obstacle, however, was the glacial pace of the book. Kim - Kimball O'Hara - is the orphaned son of a British soldier who was raised as a native. While guiding a Buddhist lama across India, he comes across his father's old regiment, who take it upon themselves to educate Kim (a "proper" British education, that is), and recognizing his skills, to recruit him as a spy in "the Great Game."
This is all well and good, and in many respects creates the formula for the "espinonage" genre - but the story moved so slowly towards those ends, it was all I could do to muster the willpower to plow through chapter after chapter of young Kim running away from his British school to hang out with the locals, to be pulled back to school, to run away again ... all the while, of course, Kim is learning "trade craft": disguise, customs, observing details, learning about human nature. It made for painful reading.
Why three stars, then? For all its shortcomings and the issues I had in reading through it, Kipling certainly celebrates India: the various cultures, the sounds, sights, flavours and rich diversity are detailed here and make for a veritable smorgasbord of what colonial India must have been like. The racial undertones, its "burden of empire" and the strict class differences (among Indians as well as English) aside, it is apparent how deeply attached to India Kipling was. This was the book's only redeeming feature, albiet a mighty one. With that said, I can't recommend it. If you have a tooth for Kipling, I'd recommend his stories in The Jungle Book, which, incidentially, are very different from the Disney production. (No suprise there, I am sure.)
Summary of Kim (Oxford World's Classics)
Kim, one of Kipling's masterpieces, is the story of Kimball O'Hara, the orphaned son of an officer in the Irish Regiment who spends his childhood as a vagabond in Lahore. The book is a carefully organized, powerful evocation of place and of a young man's quest for identity.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
One of the particular pleasures of reading Kim is the full range of emotion, knowledge, and experience that Rudyard Kipling gives his complex hero. Kim O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier stationed in India, is neither innocent nor victimized. Raised by an opium-addicted half-caste woman since his equally dissolute father's death, the boy has grown up in the streets of Lahore:
Though he was burned black as any native; though he spoke the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain sing-song; though he consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazar; Kim was white--a poor white of the very poorest.From his father and the woman who raised him, Kim has come to believe that a great destiny awaits him. The details, however, are a bit fuzzy, consisting as they do of the woman's addled prophecies of "'a great Red Bull on a green field, and the Colonel riding on his tall horse, yes, and'--dropping into English--'nine hundred devils.'"
In the meantime, Kim amuses himself with intrigues, executing "commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion." His peculiar heritage as a white child gone native, combined with his "love of the game for its own sake," makes him uniquely suited for a bigger game. And when, at last, the long-awaited colonel comes along, Kim is recruited as a spy in Britain's struggle to maintain its colonial grip on India. Kipling was, first and foremost, a man of his time; born and raised in India in the 19th century, he was a fervid supporter of the Raj. Nevertheless, his portrait of India and its people is remarkably sympathetic. Yes, there is the stereotypical Westernized Indian Babu Huree Chander with his atrocious English, but there is also Kim's friend and mentor, the Afghani horse trader Mahub Ali, and the gentle Tibetan lama with whom Kim travels along the Grand Trunk Road. The humanity of his characters consistently belies Kipling's private prejudices, and raises Kim above the mere ripping good yarn to the level of a timeless classic. --Alix Wilber
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