Scan barcode
hanzy's review against another edition
1.0
I'm usually not a harsh critique but I just couldn't get this particular book. It was lacking in some ways and I had to skim through a few pages to just get to the end and finish it off. Maybe it's cuz my mind was preoccupied or maybe it wasn't the right time to start a book like this one. So yes, though a short story, I found it extremely boring.
ladybatherine's review against another edition
3.0
A mixed bag but pulled together with great narration.
cade's review against another edition
2.0
This is a novella, so there is only so much that can go into it. I guess that is a way of partially excusing this story for being not very interesting. This story seems to be Kipling's attempt to write in the style of oral storytelling. The story is mostly told as a flashback, so there is not much suspense as to the ending. The characters are colorful, but, consistent with the brief format, the Kipling uses just a few specific "watchwords" and "touchstones" to describe them that are immediately supposed to call to mind a "type" from which you can fill in the details. Unfortunately, what those "touchstones" symbolize is not obvious to a modern layman separated by such distance in time and culture. I understood plenty to understand the story, but I think I missed the extra layer that would have really made me admire the storytelling.
lindseympeterson's review against another edition
3.0
I always enjoy Kipling, in spite of his imperialism, or maybe because of it. His portraits of expats whose only real home is the colony the live in, despite their not belonging there resonate with me for some reason. They don't fit where they are, in part because they set themselves as separate as possible in order to not go native, and in part, because they're afraid of being rejected or the natives turning on them.
In The Man Who Would Be King, that's just what happens when a white gets too close to the natives. When he decides to take a wife, the natives over whom he is ruling, turn against him, realizing that he is not a god, and chase him and his companion out, killing one and nearly killing the other. Their experience seems to be a warning by Kipling against getting too close to the indigenous. Yes, the colonists have a responsibility towards the natives, to educate, domesticate and civilize the natives as much as their nature will let them, but colonists always must remember that they are 'sahib' and must stay apart. By getting too close, you make yourself as one of them, and cease to be special. If you cease to be special, they will recognize you for what you are, an intruder and a conqueror who needs to be overthrown, rather than a demi-god to be obeyed and worshipped.
In The Man Who Would Be King, that's just what happens when a white gets too close to the natives. When he decides to take a wife, the natives over whom he is ruling, turn against him, realizing that he is not a god, and chase him and his companion out, killing one and nearly killing the other. Their experience seems to be a warning by Kipling against getting too close to the indigenous. Yes, the colonists have a responsibility towards the natives, to educate, domesticate and civilize the natives as much as their nature will let them, but colonists always must remember that they are 'sahib' and must stay apart. By getting too close, you make yourself as one of them, and cease to be special. If you cease to be special, they will recognize you for what you are, an intruder and a conqueror who needs to be overthrown, rather than a demi-god to be obeyed and worshipped.
janetl69's review against another edition
1.0
DNF!
I picked this book for the 2020 PopSugar Challenge category of "an anthology" and I wish I hadn't! Given other reviews, I'm clearly missing something here, but this was horrible. As in horribly written and horribly "I'm superior to you" with the main character of the few stories that I actually started.
I'm not a fan of short stories because I almost always want more when they are over, but these weren't short enough for me.
I picked this book for the 2020 PopSugar Challenge category of "an anthology" and I wish I hadn't! Given other reviews, I'm clearly missing something here, but this was horrible. As in horribly written and horribly "I'm superior to you" with the main character of the few stories that I actually started.
I'm not a fan of short stories because I almost always want more when they are over, but these weren't short enough for me.
sbotelho's review
4.0
This is a story written in 1888 that shows the Victorian and English colonialist mentality. It has the prejudice against countries/cultures considered inferior to the superior European - specially the English one - and the arrogance that goes with it.
Two men decide to go to a place in which now belongs to Afghanistan to become kings, thinking that by bringing their superior guns and intelligence they can easily trick the locals and become kings. Dravot is more ambitious than the companion Carnehan who follows along to the ride. They meet this journalist to whom they tell the story and then go to their adventure.
In the beginning they accomplish their goal but then, of course, things go very badly for them. One ends up dead and the other comes back to tell the story to the journalist and end up dying as well. .
The author's moral of the story seems to be blaming women (or lusting after them) and departure from the true religion - with Dravot wanting to become a God - for the bad things that happen and loss of their authority and everything they've conquered. There is no reflection about how wrong it is to assume your culture is superior to other, but rather that there is goodness in conquering other "inferior" cultures that end up benefiting from the good things the superior British bring.
There is also the racism of thinking that the people they've conquered are not as bad because they are not as dark as the other people the British have conquered. There is denial as well since at a certain point, Dravot talks about bathing someone in hot water several times so they would become as white as them. If the people around them were white, then no such method would be needed.
In all it's a very interesting tale and funny to see how these two idiots end up getting what they deserve in the end,.
Two men decide to go to a place in which now belongs to Afghanistan to become kings, thinking that by bringing their superior guns and intelligence they can easily trick the locals and become kings. Dravot is more ambitious than the companion Carnehan who follows along to the ride. They meet this journalist to whom they tell the story and then go to their adventure.
The author's moral of the story seems to be blaming women (or lusting after them) and departure from the true religion - with Dravot wanting to become a God - for the bad things that happen and loss of their authority and everything they've conquered. There is no reflection about how wrong it is to assume your culture is superior to other, but rather that there is goodness in conquering other "inferior" cultures that end up benefiting from the good things the superior British bring.
There is also the racism of thinking that the people they've conquered are not as bad because they are not as dark as the other people the British have conquered. There is denial as well since at a certain point, Dravot talks about bathing someone in hot water several times so they would become as white as them. If the people around them were white, then no such method would be needed.
In all it's a very interesting tale and funny to see how these two idiots end up getting what they deserve in the end,
Spoiler
even though I disagree with the reasons why they got screwed.dodaheem's review against another edition
4.0
I had never read much Kipling, and this was a free download and I needed something to read on my phone while giving exams.
I had a hard time following the beginning, with who was talking, etc. However, the story held me and I was glad I stayed with it. This is the classic tale of ne'er-do-wells with grand schemes who bite off more than they can chew and end up eating crow (to mix metaphors).
I had a hard time following the beginning, with who was talking, etc. However, the story held me and I was glad I stayed with it. This is the classic tale of ne'er-do-wells with grand schemes who bite off more than they can chew and end up eating crow (to mix metaphors).
sjbozich's review against another edition
3.0
With Sean Connery's death, I wanted to go back to the movie based upon the title story here, and finally read the story as well. Director Huston fills out the story, which is only about 44 pages long, quite well for a 2:10 movie, and keeps it in a very Kiplingesque mode thr0ughout the film.
Kipling's bibliographic history is quite a maze, but the selection of 17 stories here are from his 6 pamphlets from the Indian Railway publications, most of them printed earlier in the newspapers he worked for in India. I am not quite sure if that was 28 or 36 stories published in those 6 inexpensive volumes (flimsy, in a moist climate, and read to pieces, I wonder what one of them would cost today on the rare book market!). And the 3 stories he added on to the first British publication, which was in 3 volumes.
As editor Louis Cornell points out, there is a great deal of difference between those earlier, quick-write for newspaper publications, and the later 3 tales.
OTOH, this is one of the weaker Oxford World Classics Intros - it is outdated (late '80's), as is the bibliography of further reading. He assumes the reader already has a knowledge of the stories included in the volume, and goes on about characters being confined and hemmed in and enclosed. Little about British Imperialism.
His Notes are inconsistent. He does let us know that he depended upon the 1980's 4 volume Readers Guide from the Kipling Society, without using all of their notes. Amazingly, this RG was not comprehensive, and is now being updated as the New Readers Guide! A couple volumes of his work are available with the new notes on Kindle. In the case of "Soldiers Three", one third of the volume is Notes!
Many of the stories included here are set in the British Summering place of Simla, and many are stories of the flirtations and affairs that occur there annually. Although there are stories of war, and the military ranks, and from the POV of Indian natives here as well.
I had not read Kipling in decades, and plan to read more - mostly his earlier work. Right now I have little interest in his "Jungle Book" stories or his poetry.
Kipling's bibliographic history is quite a maze, but the selection of 17 stories here are from his 6 pamphlets from the Indian Railway publications, most of them printed earlier in the newspapers he worked for in India. I am not quite sure if that was 28 or 36 stories published in those 6 inexpensive volumes (flimsy, in a moist climate, and read to pieces, I wonder what one of them would cost today on the rare book market!). And the 3 stories he added on to the first British publication, which was in 3 volumes.
As editor Louis Cornell points out, there is a great deal of difference between those earlier, quick-write for newspaper publications, and the later 3 tales.
OTOH, this is one of the weaker Oxford World Classics Intros - it is outdated (late '80's), as is the bibliography of further reading. He assumes the reader already has a knowledge of the stories included in the volume, and goes on about characters being confined and hemmed in and enclosed. Little about British Imperialism.
His Notes are inconsistent. He does let us know that he depended upon the 1980's 4 volume Readers Guide from the Kipling Society, without using all of their notes. Amazingly, this RG was not comprehensive, and is now being updated as the New Readers Guide! A couple volumes of his work are available with the new notes on Kindle. In the case of "Soldiers Three", one third of the volume is Notes!
Many of the stories included here are set in the British Summering place of Simla, and many are stories of the flirtations and affairs that occur there annually. Although there are stories of war, and the military ranks, and from the POV of Indian natives here as well.
I had not read Kipling in decades, and plan to read more - mostly his earlier work. Right now I have little interest in his "Jungle Book" stories or his poetry.
loritian's review against another edition
4.0
Ah, Kipling! Well-educated, talented writer. Chauvinistic, colonial, a man of his times. Thankfully those times are past.