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Kim Audio CD – Audiobook, September 1, 1994

by Rudyard Kipling (Author), Madhav Sharma (Narrator)

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Language

English
Publisher

Naxos Audio Books
Publication date

September 1, 1994
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.5 x 5 inches
ISBN-10

9626340185
ISBN-13

978-9626340189
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Naxos Audio Books; Abridged edition (September 1, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9626340185
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9626340189
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.5 x 5 inches

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683 ratings

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Kim is a detailed portrait through the eyes of Kim of the British Raj in India

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2019

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Rudyard Kipling (1865-1937) was born in India, educated in England and lived for a few years in Vermont with hi American born wife. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. His reputation has been harmed since that halcyon day. He was a white supremist and in Kim uses politically incorrect language to refer to ethnic groups living in India. Nevertheless, Kipling was a great storyteller and his portrait of India in the days of the British Raj is unsurpassed as a novel of that huge and very diverse land peopled by many races, creeds and colors.
Kimberly O'Hara is a 13 year old orphan of an Irish soldier. The novel begins in Lahore. Kim teams up with a Lama from Tibet who is in search of the River of the Arrow where he wishes to wash all his sins away. Along their journey on the Great Road they meet many colorful characters and have adventures. Kim is enticed by the flag of the Irish Maverick regiment featuring a Red Bull on a Green Field. He is discovered by the Anglican chaplain Arthur Bennet and the Roman Catholic priest Father Victor. Kim is sent to St. Xavier school where his tuition is paid by the Lama. Kim is also befriended by the horse dealer Mahbub Ali and is trained in the way of espionage by Mr. Lurgan. Kim foils the plans of Russian spies. The novel reminds one of Huckleberry Finn because Kipling's Kim and Twain's Huck are both imps of high intelligence who are always involved in adventure and living an iconoclastic lifestyle. Kim is a masterpiece. Enjoy reading it in this wonderful Everyman edition!

7 people found this helpful

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Chris Austin

Kipling's Masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020

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Most U.S. readers will know Kipling's "The Jungle Book" featuring Mowgli. However, "Kim" was his masterpiece. More than just an entertaining novel, the book also delivers an amazing perspective on colonial India (albeit from the perspective of an Englishman). There is no lack of racial stereotypes in this book. If you can ignore them, it remains a fascinating and rewarding read.

7 people found this helpful

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gustav zantanon

More than a road trip.

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2014

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This was at first glance a book about a boy. A very resourceful boy, at that. Who as the story opens shows us that he has conquered the childhood games with his cleverness and recognition of the importance of symbolic acts. He meets the spirit guide of the next stages of his life in the lama. Together they take the "long walk" of the Grand Trunk, an ancient road from Calcutta to Kabul. This river of people becomes a character in the narrative by itself. It sweeps them to their separate visions, the old man lama's of a river where he will be renewed and the boy's search for the red bull in the green field.

Kim is taken into the custody of his father's old regiment, forcing him to realize his status as a sahib. He takes this arrangement in stride partly because he is curious and willing to learn what the whites have to offer but also he knows and proves that he can leave when he wills to. What he learns is the elements and tricks of The Game, a term even in the 19th century for the espionage business.

With the lama who is still searching for his river, Kim travels into the mountains north and west of the Punjab were they encounter rival spies working for the Russians who have a State interest in Afghanistan and India. Both Kim and the lama come to harm; Kim takes responsibility for the old man's health and safety and brings him to a friend's home off the mountains where they both can heal.

Before the story closes, both recognize they have found what they are searching for and found each other too

8 people found this helpful

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The burden of the White Man's Burden...

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2011

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Bigoted and Prejudiced. No, I'm not referring to "Kim," but rather myself, at least in relationship to Kipling. It was the three words in the subject line that hung like a millstone around Kipling's neck. Admittedly, I never read the poem, and it too seems to be more complex than the simple phrase that seems to exhort the "white man" (as it was, in a more sexist era) to the "duty" to raise the "natives" into civilized enlightenment (a concept that resonated with the French as well, and whose practice was, well, so often diametrically opposed.) But my reviewer colleague slightly to my north, RM Peterson, prodded me, more than once, to read a book he has read several times. And so we made a "deal," and he would read one of my favorites that he normally would not have. Talk about the "burden" of trying to enlighten your fellow man... ( a concept that is still not fully PC).

And what I found was a marvelously complex and insightful novel that depicted so much that was the wonder of India at the end of the 19th century. Kim or Kim(ball) could be a model for multiculturalism and even, ugh, "diversity training." He is left a street orphan after his parent's death (his father was a soldier in the Irish Guards.) He manages to scratch out a living, mainly begging, with Hindustani as his first language. A "mere" youth, he grows up quickly, developing a sound judgment of human character; he is precocious in accessing the ways of power. Depending on the circumstances, he can be a model of propriety, or an utter scoundrel.

There are several themes woven into the novel. Kim becomes a chela (disciple) to a lama (a holy man) from Tibet who is seeking Enlightenment (different than that peddled by the colonial powers), "The River," and release from the "Wheel" of reincarnation. (At times, this bordered on Hesse's Siddhartha ). As a counterbalance to the spiritual, there are the efforts by British military personnel to recruit young Kim into what was dubbed "The Great Game." That was the conflict between Britain and Russia for dominance in Central Asia, well documented by Peter Hopkirk in his excellent book of the same name The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe) . "Kim" is referenced three times in Hopkirk's book. With Kim's language ability, and his nuanced understanding of the customs and habits of various ethnic groups, he becomes natural spy material. But as the chief recruiter, Colonel Creighton warns him: "... if he spits, or sneezes, or sits down other than as the people do whom he watches, he may be slain." Other longer native portraits involve the wily Muslim horse-trader who frequently visits "beyond the passes" (in present day Afghanistan) and returns with goods more valuable than horses (information!). Another is a double-dealing Bengali, Hurree Babu, who helps the Russians late in the novel: "The reason of his friendliness did him credit. With millions of fellow-serfs, he had learned to look upon Russia as the great deliverer from the North." There are numerous female characters, most are depicted as being fairly strong and forthright, including the Woman of Shamlegh who seems to have her eye on some good genes recalling a lost Sahib love.

Is Kipling racist? I saw no evidence in this book. True, there is the "n-word," but it is coupled with an admonition by the Colonel not to involve oneself with the students who have that outlook. The author seemed to be an "equal opportunity" user of sardonic observations, certainly including those directed at British rule. Consider his comment on an Army Chaplin: "Bennett looked at him with the triple-ringed uninterest of the creed that lumps nine-tenths of the world under the title of `heathen.'"

There are numerous observations of the human condition that remain all too true more than a century later: "Sahibs are always tied to their baggage," or on professional rivalries: "All we ethnological men are as jealous as jackdaws of one another's discoveries." America has now replaced Britain as the dominant imperial power in the area, with seemingly far less insight into the "natives" than a Kim would provide. In the "Plus ca change..." category of eternal truths, as the present-day newspaper accounts of missing billions merely confirm Kipling's words in Colonel Creighton's mouth: "One advantage of the Secret Service is that it has no worrying audit... the funds are administered by a few men who do not call for vouchers or present itemized accounts." But did they have Swiss banks back then?

Kipling writes well, and I liked his technique of utilizing Hindi or Urdu words, coupled with the English meaning, which, inter alia, reminded me what "pukka" means. Thanks for the recommendation Mike. It is both the history of a time and place, and yet another guide for contemporary events. Certainly 5-stars until the next re-read.

21 people found this helpful

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Oliver Twist

On the Grand Trunk Road

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2020

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"It is time to take the Road again."

Kim, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, brought up in the streets and bazaars of Lahore, befriends an elderly Tibetan Holy Man and decides to accompany him on his quest, across India, in search of a miraculous River of Healing.

'On The Road' is a phrase which is carved onto one of the relief sculptures which John Lockwood Kipling produced to illustrate his son Rudyard's novel. And considered in one of its aspects, I suppose that 'Kim' is the first example of the twentieth-century 'road' novel, a form which would later became associated with Jack Kerouac, amongst others. The road in question is the Grand Trunk Road, along which Kim and his Tibetan Buddhist Lama make a significant part of their journey. There is also one sequence on this road where you don't have to read very far between the lines in order to realise that Kim is clearly 'stoned' on what Kipling calls 'a native-made cigarette' that he has managed to procure, or blag, along the way. He is a particularly knowing and resourceful little urchin, this one. And he is also something of an adept with changes of costume and make-up, enabling him to pass as a Hindu, Moslem or Buddhist boy, as occasion demands. In Kim's way of life, these are useful skills to have, but the more that he uses and develops them, the more they leave him with a nagging question about his own identity:

"Who is Kim - Kim - Kim?"

During the course of his journey, and the personal development which accompanies it, Kim is recruited by British Intelligence to work as an adolescent spy. And so he becomes drawn into the 'Great Game' of international politics which, in this particular instance, is being played out between Britain, the settled imperial power, and Russia - her aspirant rival for dominion of India. In Kim's capacity as a junior secret agent, he uses his status as disciple to a Buddhist Lama as his 'cover'. What remains deliberately opaque is precisely how much, or how little, Kim's Holy Man knows of his disciple's moonlighting for British intelligence. But there is more than one hint, both literal and symbolic, contained within the text to suggest that he might know a good deal more about it than he ever actually lets on, or explicitly says.

"...no hint is given except to those who know."

In my view, Kim is the literary prototype for the later British spy novels of authors like Ian Fleming, as well as for the fictional 'teen spy' genre which has become so popular in our own time. These are aspects of Kipling's work which have been much imitated by later writers, though little commented upon by them and certainly never equalled in terms of literary merit.

The central motif of 'Kim' is the Buddhist wheel of karma - of life, death and rebirth - and the first representation of it takes the form of the barrel of Zam-Zammah, the big gun around whose mouth revolve the forms of Kim and his two childhood playmates, Chota Lal and Abdullah; each one of them representing different religions, or 'ways'; each one of which has dominated India at different times of the past or, in Kim's case, the present; and each of whom has sat atop the gun's barrel in the pre-eminent position currently occupied by Kim, and therefore by 'the English'. The clear inference being that this present occupancy of the position will prove to be every bit as temporal as the others. After all, as Kim's Buddhist guru would no doubt remind us, the Wheel must turn.

"...sure is the Wheel, swerving not a hair."

Written more than a century (and two world wars) ago, the novel still reads as though it had been written this morning. In essence, it hasn't dated at all. On the contrary, I think it has grown more universal and more relevant with the passage of time. Set within the context of India's teeming multi-faith millions, the novel actually feels as though it were taking place within a modern multicultural society. The book's mixture of Buddhist, Muslim, British and other influences must have seemed desperately exotic to millions of readers when it was first published, in 1901, but that same multicultural context is far more commonplace and universally experienced today.

"...Such-zen."

When considered in what might be called its spiritual aspect, 'Kim' becomes the most transcendental and all-embracing of Kipling's work, although earlier stories by him also indicate his sympathies to this end. The novel demonstrates Kipling's respect for the varieties of religious experience in India, and it firmly flags up the possibility of harmony being established and maintained in the midst of religious and ethnic diversity. So do I think that Kim was a visionary work? Yes I do. I think that Kim was not only one of the first, but also one of the most far-seeing novels of the twentieth century.

So far as the book's spiritual influences are concerned, by the end it is pretty clear that in its author's sympathies Buddhism finishes first, with Islam (in the person of Mahbub Ali) a very close second. Set a little farther back from these are the other Indian religions - Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism - plus the two branches of the western Christian religion which are represented, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.

In my view, 'Kim' also draws to a grand conclusion Kipling's 'Indian period'. If 'The Jungle Books' represent the noontide sun of Kipling's talent, then 'Kim' is the golden, slanting sunlight of the later afternoon. In fact, no review of 'Kim' would be complete without mentioning that '...low-driving sunlight which makes luminous every detail in the picture of The Grand Trunk Road at eventide...' which Kipling remembered in his autobiography, 'Something of Myself', written more than thirty years later.

It is worthwhile the reader knowing that the 'Woman of Shamlegh', who crops up towards the end of the novel, is also the 'Lisbeth' of Kipling's very first story from the collected 'Plain Tales from The Hills'. Although a person of some power and status in her native society, the Woman of Shamlegh's attempts to seduce Kim are doomed to failure, as much, if not more, for reasons tied up with her own past (for a full account of which you will have to read 'Plain Tales from the Hills') as for those to do with Kim's present and future.

One of the novel's most interesting features is that the emphasis of the story appears to shift with each successive reading. It can be read as a 'road' novel, an adventure story, a spy yarn, a study of global politics (at that time), a spiritual journey, a coming-of-age tale and, ultimately, as a love story. Indeed, the novel ends upon the word 'beloved'.

Note: This review relates to the 'Oxford World's Classics' edition which contains an Introduction by Alan Sandison, a chronology of Kipling's life and works, and Explanatory Notes for the Indian terms which the reader will encounter in the text.

10 people found this helpful

Cornwallgurl

Kipling's great work revisited and enjoyed immensely

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2017

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I cannot remember how old I was when I first read this book. It was my mother's favourite, and she was always urging me to read Kipling, and I hugely enjoyed most of his children's books, but I can remember struggling with Kim quite a bit. My mother, like Kipling, was India born and had that same lifelong yearning for the country that so many old India hands experienced, and in her case she had 3 previous generations of family born there. She was disappointed that I didn't enjoy it that much. Having recently read Charles Allen's excellent biography of Kipling's time in India, Kipling Sahib, which included a detailed section on the writing, illustrating and origins of Kim, the locations and the people, I decided to read it again as a mature adult. I have recently been re-reading quite a few of the children's classics that I read as a child and find in the main that I am enjoying them all the more by bringing maturity and life experience to the party. One or two have disappointed, but largely I am aware of the reasons that these books are classics and have stood the test of time. None more so than Kim - I was just blown away by it - to use a not very articulate critical phrase!
I strongly believe that it is Kipling's greatest work; India just leaps off the page - the sights, sounds, smells, colours. I know that Kipling is deeply unfashionable and much reviled these days, but I find it hard to understand how this book could not be enjoyed by many. I was helped of course by my family's background in India, knowledge of where the places are, of many of the Hindi phrases and customs, the school (based I suspect on La Martiniere College in Lucknow) and the machinations of "The Great Game". I have a few family Indian photos left, and the memory of my mother and grandmothers' joint yearning for the India that they both left (like Kipling) and their occasional conversations in Hindi (which is how I picked up some of the words) were very nostalgic and perhaps one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. Even in the 21st century, playing "Kim's Game" with Cubs is an interesting exercise in concentration and the story of the jewels it was originally played with sparked their interest when some children complained they didn't like games where they had to concentrate and think!
This book is by turns a sort of travelogue, a rite of passage, embraces Oriental philosophies, has a cracking good story, pays homage to Kipling's father and even has an interestingly ambiguous ending. I read it in full technicolour with all the people and scenes so clearly in my mind, which surely is the mark of a great novel.

24 people found this helpful

MJ

What is Kim?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2021

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This Oxford World's Classics edition of Kim is excellent value for money. The font is similar in size to other paperback editions. It has an introduction and endnotes explaining some of the less obvious words and allusions.

What is Kim about? At one level it is about the Great Game, the contest to defend the Raj against real or imagined threats from Russia or other powers. However, there is more to it. It is about what we should value in life. Worldly achievement or moral values? It is about identity. Who is Kim? English or Indian?

The book is a magnificent panorama of the landscape and peoples of Northern India before partition, as seen by Kipling in the 1880s. Kipling has a fascination with accents, voices, languages and wordplay and a delightful sense of humour, for example in the discussion at the end of Chapter 12. This is as much at the expense of the English as anyone else.

The language of the dialogue is somewhat archaic (I assume to give the flavour of the Indian languages it is representing) so I would recommend combining the book with the fantastic Audible reading by Sam Dastor, who really brings it to life.

Kim was published in 1901 and, unsurprisingly, reflects the views of that time. However, if you are prepared to read it historically rather than hysterically, as the introduction to this edition puts it, then it has a great deal to offer.

It is interesting to read the near-contemporaneous evaluation of Kim by EM Forster (hardly a soulmate of Kipling) in a lecture of 1908: If Kipling had not been born in India "he would not have given us the greatest of all his books, Kim. Kim is Kipling. It is the one book that we must bear in mind when we are trying to estimate his genius, for it contains the spiritual standard by which all his developments must be measured." He concludes that most of Kipling's verse was "thrown off by the superficial layers of Kipling's mind, while Kim proceeds from the central core of it, that was quickened into life by India."

Customer

Don't buy. Not a longman cultural edition as described and font too small.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2017

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This review is not about the book's contents but about this particular product.
This is not Longman Cultural Edition as described. To be fair there are small prints at the end of product description saying "--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.". However, I think this is very dishonest as the seller put product descriptions of Longman Cultural Edition of Kim then add this one line at the end as an excuse to send something completely different. I ordered it from my iPhone app so I didn't notice the last sentence the seller added. On top of that the font is too small - I'm 33 years old with good pair of eyes but even for me it's too small to enjoy the book. I would say font size is about 8-9. Dishonest, disgraceful and disgusting sales conduct. Returning this and ordering another version.

14 people found this helpful

marion

KIM

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2022

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a captivating story of the adventures of an Irish boy, Kimball O' Hara growing up in imperial India, his love for the country and especially his love for his holyman Tishoo Llama as he pits his wits against the other great Imperial power, Russia.

Marion in Hailey Oxfordshire

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