The Complete Stalky and Co. (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Rudyard Kipling (Author), Isabel Quigly (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0192838598 | ISBN-13: 978-0192838599 | Publication Date: June 24, 1999

First published in 1899, Stalky and Co. is a collection of school stories based on Kipling's own experiences at the United Services College. Kipling himself appears as the central character called Beetle and through him shows how school is a pattern-maker for the experiences of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Completely delighted that you've brought out a whole bundle of Kipling titles."--William N. Rogers, San Diego State University

About the Author

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in India. He went to school in England and then returned to India to be a writer and a journalist.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192838598
• ISBN-13: 978-0192838599
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,916,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three boys' lives at a British school in the 19th century., November 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Stalky & Co (Worlds Classics) (Paperback)

This is one of the few books I chose to take with me when I left the country for a two year stint at teaching English in Japan. It is the same book as "Stalky & Co." except it includes five stories and four poems that are not to be found in the other version. It is Kipling's amazing talent for re-creating the spoken dialect of a people that makes this book such a tour-de-force. In "The Complete Stalky & Co.," he aimes that ear at the 19th century British schoolboy, and re-creates for us the long-vanished world responsible for the formation of the men that populate his other novels - the British private school.

The story is of three young friends at war with their teachers, a conflict which is kept in check only by the wisdom and experience of the headmaster. Although the stories are for the most part humorous, they clearly show Kipling's perspective on the maxim of 'as the twig is bent, so goes the tree, and as the novel is partly autobiographical it is interesting as an insight into Kipling's development as well as a story in its own right.
Although "The Complete Stalky & Co." is considered by many to be a book for children, the plotting, dialect work, and occasional adult references set it apart as a rare story that may be about children but perhaps is not intended for children.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, September 2, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Stalky and Co. (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

With Stalky, McTurk and Beetle around, you know that school will never be boring. They are a terror to the house-masters, the prefects, and just about everyone else. And, college complete, out they go, bursting upon an unsuspecting world!

I must admit that I have not read much Rudyard Kipling, but this is one of my favorite books! Kipling takes an irreverent look at late-nineteenth century British school life, taking the reader along on a hilarious journey from one adventure to another. As this book was originally written with the younger reader in mind, they will no doubt enjoy seeing these students outmaneuver and overwhelm their elders. But, even if you are only young at heart, you will still enjoy this wonderfully hilarious book. I have read it three times over the years, and do not hesitate to recommend it highly to everyone!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best written books in the English language., June 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Thousand Oaks, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Stalky and Co. (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Well, get ready to take yourself back to grammar and high school! If you attended a small, interactive private (in the US sense) school, this incredibly imaginative coverage of the genre will leave you gasping for breath more than once. If you, in your youth, were adventurous, mischievous and inventive, always in some sort of trouble, this is a book that will recapture those times both when you beat the system and when the system beat you. My father, who would be 103 if he still lived, passed this book on to me in his will, and I still have the original. In its thirty years of existence it's become dogeared and yellowed, like its former and its current owner. And it cost $.60 originally. You don't have to be old to enjoy it; you don't even have to have a "past" to laugh out loud every single time you read it. Buy it! You'll be passing it on to your children.