Rudyard Kipling: A Survey of His Literary Art

ISBN-10: 1087356709
ISBN-13: 9781087356709
Series: Rudyard Kipling
Pages: 194
Language: English
Published: 2019-08-04
Author: R Thurston Hopkins

Description

When a man has read once, or twice, or three times, through Rudyard Kipling's books, he will probably dip into them here and there at intervals. By so doing he gradually makes his own notebook on this author; but it may be that he will yet find a place for another man's "Kipling commonplace book," even if it has no pretension to completeness or authority. The following pages are intended to furnish a popular guide to the attitude and writings of Rudyard Kipling. My original purpose when the book was first discussed with my publisher was to have confined the pages to a brief outline of the author's works. But I had not been engaged long on the book before it dawned upon me that in speaking of any one of the author's books it is always necessary to say a good deal about the author as a man. When a man is recognized as our first story-teller and at the same time as a poet who has appealed to every kind of Englishman, from the illiterate pioneer to those who represent the finest culture of our country, he becomes a heritage of the people, and we are entitled to gather together as much information about his life and ideas as may be possible. This task has not been easy, for Rudyard Kipling has written of all he has seen during his residence or travels in five continents. He has absorbed India. Man and beast, native and white, have been touched upon with his unmatched picturesque style.