The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories (The World's Classics) [Paperback]

Rudyard Kipling (Author), Louis L. Cornell (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The World's Classics | Publication Date: April 9, 1987

Arranged in the order of their original publication and written during Kipling's time as a journalist in India, these seventeen short stories explore the themes of isolation and abandonment and the effects of the Indian caste system on society. Along with the title piece, the volume includes "Gemini," "A Wayside Comedy," "The Hill of Illusion," "Only a Subaltern," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," "Black Jack," and others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I wanted them all, even those I'd already read."
—Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer

"Small wonders."
—Time Out London

"[F]irst-rate…astutely selected and attractively packaged…indisputably great works."
—Adam Begley, The New York Observer

"I’ve always been haunted by Bartleby, the proto-slacker. But it’s the handsomely minimalist cover of the Melville House edition that gets me here, one of many in the small publisher’s fine 'Art of the Novella' series."
—The New Yorker

"The Art of the Novella series is sort of an anti-Kindle. What these singular, distinctive titles celebrate is book-ness. They're slim enough to be portable but showy enough to be conspicuously consumed—tiny little objects that demand to be loved for the commodities they are."
—KQED (NPR San Francisco)

"Some like it short, and if you're one of them, Melville House, an independent publisher based in Brooklyn, has a line of books for you... elegant-looking paperback editions ...a good read in a small package."
—The Wall Street Journal


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Back Cover

'The Man Who Would be King' is the story of two British vagabonds who set off to establish a small kingdom among primitive tribesmen in Afghanistan. Only one of the men returns, and his condition is so bad that the newspaperman-narrator barely recognizes him.This collection brings together seventeen of Kipling's early stories, written between 1885 and 1888, when Kipling was working as a journalist in India. The stories include: 'The Phantom Rickshaw, ' 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep, ' 'At the Pit's Mouth, ' 'A Wayside Comedy, ' 'Gemini, ' 'The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes, ' 'At Twenty-Two, ' and 'With the Main Guard.'Audiobook read by Fred Williams.

--This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Thus edition (April 9, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192816748
• ISBN-13: 978-0192816740
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,719,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

177 of 177 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Kipling's better short stories, September 19, 2009

By 

T. Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Who Would Be King (Kindle Edition)

This is a story about two con men in British Imperial India who cook up a scheme to make themselves kings in Afghanistan. One of Kipling's better short stories, it was admired by writers as disparate as J.M. Barrie and H.G. Wells. It suffers a little from having had a zillion imitators in the intervening century or so, and like a lot of Kipling's works, there's an undertone of paternalistic imperialism that modern readers may find grating, but it isn't like he's showing the British in a positive light either -- this is Kipling at his best, and at his best he was too good a writer to let anyone, including the British, off the hook.

Read this if you're trying to figure out whether or not you like Kipling's works that are aimed for adults -- it's very different in tone from, say, The Jungle Book or _Just So Stories_, which were written for children. If you like this, I recommend you grab Plain Tales from the Hills, his first collection of stories set in British India; it should also be available online for free.

If you're interested in the historical background for this story, it was at least partially inspired by a real individual, an American named Josiah Harlan.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic tale of British India, April 21, 2009

By 

John Allgood (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Who Would Be King (Kindle Edition)

What a great short story. Greed, guts and struggles for glory. If you haven't read this story but have only seen the movie, you are missing out. True, you can't see Sean Connery but you easily get the flavor of the period. And it is free! This is a great short story to read on your Kindle Iphone app.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brutal story, subtle satire., June 1, 2002

By 

Knut Oyangen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Who Would Be King & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Collection) (Paperback)

The story of the man who would be king describes the journey of two half-mad yet determined Englishmen from obscurity in India to divine rule in far-off Kafiristan. The two men smuggle themselves into Afghanistan posing as a mad priest and his servant, steal some mules when their camels can go no further, trek over the vast mountains, and set themselves up as kings by demonstrating the power of the rifle to spear-brandishing natives (in the most murderous way, one might add). They later establish their status as gods by introducing Masonic mystery and orders to the mountain villages. Eventually, however, their humanity is exposed, thus wrecking the dream of empire.

The story itself is witty and exciting, driven by the raw prose and longing for exotic adventure characteristic of Kipling. At the same time, this short tale is remarkable as a summary of imperialism and its problems. The questionable motives and courses of actions of the imperialists are exposed, yet at the same time they are shown to reflect human nature more than ideology or political purpose. The ease with which a small number of people with superior technology can subjugate much larger numbers is also demonstrated in a non-sentimental fashion (it is certainly not a politically correct story by present standards). Finally, the ending emphasizes the impossibility of maintaining authority in the long run under such circumstances - technological knowledge must be revealed to maintain order, responsibility must be shared with intermediaries, and propaganda will eventually be appropriated for subversive purposes. If only historians could be as brief and straightforward as Kipling in recognizing these simple facts about how imperialism came about and how it was doomed to failure.