Kim [Paperback]

Rudyard Kipling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

Kipling's famous tale of India features Kimball O'Hara, an Irish orphan raised in India. After travelling with a Tibetan lama, Kim is sent to school, but continues to travel with the lama and aids the English Secret Service. The novel is especially well-loved for its depictions of India.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

"Máire ní Fhlathúin's new edition of Kim is a welcome event. The substantial and scholarly, yet accessible, introduction contextualises the novel in important new ways. This is complemented by a diverse range of supplementary material, which allows the reader to appreciate more clearly some of the debates, texts, and contexts by which Kipling was influenced as he wrote his masterpiece. This is an edition that will appeal alike to the student, scholar, and general reader." (Bart Moore-Gilbert ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 337 pages
• Publisher: Adamant Media Corporation (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0543902846
• ISBN-13: 978-0543902849
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,237,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

109 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A 'Best Kept Secret' of literature, May 26, 2006

By 

E. M. Van Court "Van, emvc (at) lycos.com" (Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Kim (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

'Kim' is a work that could receive very different reviews depending on the biases of the reviewer.

Any professor from the English department of my alma mater (Rutgers) would insist that 'Kim' should never under any circumstances receive any praise as it is racist, glorifies imperialism, was writen by a dead white male, and lacks a political philosophy acceptable to a modern progressive liberal. Well, I suppose that it lacks any real political philosophy (except some very general complimentary comments about democracy) and Rudyard Kipling is dead, white and male, but the first two comments are completely wrong and and this sort of review is the voice of ignorance.

A staunch traditionalist, conservative would insist that it is a canonical work that should be read by every school child as a superior example of English literature and the epitomy of the written Enlish language. This is equally ill-informed and ill-considered.

'Kim' is a wonderful story of an orphan in India (the part that is now Pakistan; Abid-please consider it a gesture of respect that I mention the change in geography) in the late 1800s. Kim is the son of an Irish soldier raised by locals, familiar with the customs and languages of the Hindus and Muslims of the area who gets recruited by the British to spy for them. Kim acts as a guide for a Tibetan Buddhist priest who is on a quest in India, broadening his knowledge of the cultures of his world and giving him an excuse to travel even further. He comes upon his father's regiment, and the officers of the regiment arrange for Kim to attend a 'proper' British school. Throughout the story, a British spymaster is helping Kim receive an education (both formal and in the skills needed to serve the British rule in India) and arranging for Kim to carry messages and run small but important tasks for him.

Throughout the book, the only Indian group that is treated with disrespect is Hindus who have sacrificed their own culture's customs in order to get ahead in the British goverment. Frequently, the low opinion of the British held by the Indians (Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist) is mentioned, and is usually pretty funny. The other European powers that are mention in the book are not treated with respect, but that is understandable (at least to me in context; other readers will have to make up their own minds).

Kipling's passion for the land he was raised in and his love for the peoples he was raised with is unmistakable, as is his love/hate relationship with the British government (N.B. he was not knighted in a time when most prominent authors were; he was entirely too candid about the British rule in India and the Crown's treatment of her soldiers). The language of the book is a little hard to follow, between regional loan words and the English of the time, but a patient and persistant reader will find the effort rewarded.

A great spy novel, read it for yourself and don't trust the critics who speak based on assumptions rather than knowledge.

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Simple conversion of public domain text., April 29, 2010

By 

Paul Durrant (Norwich, Norfolk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kim (Kindle Edition)

Review for Public Domain Books edition of Kim with ASIN: B000JQU7BM

This edition of Kim has been deleted since I first reviewed it in 2010. That's probably a good thing, as it really wasn't very good.

If you're looking for a Kindle edition of Kim, don't just search for "Kim". That only finds a few of the many editions. Search for "Kim Kipling" (without the quotes) to find the many editions available. And also look for my review "Kindle Edition Choice is critical" for a review of all the available editions as of January 2012. I can't give a live link to the mass review here, but its web address is: http://www.amazon.com/review/RYXM7JHQPNONU/

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother!, December 21, 2007

By 

Cynthia (Port Townsend, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kim (Kindle Edition)

This one's not properly formatted
for the Kindle
Don't bother!
It will drive you nuts

But don't overlook the book
Kipling is a lot more sophisticated than he looks
Some have called this a mystery or thriller
I loved the intricate look at culture
and a little bonus
A lama's enlightenment