Plain Tales From The Hills

plain tales from the hills From Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old.Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), the Just So Stories (1902), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined.Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century. George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "He [Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with.

An outstanding collection of stories of colonial life capturing all the richness of India's sights, sounds and smells. He writes with haunting passion about the cultural, racial and sexual barriers of the day and the stories resound with a tender, yet tragic, poignancy.

Originally published in 2004 by Toby Press.

Rudyard Kipling is one of the best known writers of the 20th century, and an author whose works are ready by kids around the globe. In his day, he was known for his tales and poems, many of which were set in India during the era of the British Empire, but now he is best known for works like The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and Kim. Among the works Kipling produced about India, Plain Tales from the Hills is arguably the most popular. Plain Tales was Kipling's first collection of stories, and it looks at what life was like in India when the British still ruled it. It also serves as a prequel of sorts to Kim, one of Kipling's most famous novels.