Plain Tales from the Hills

by Kipling, Rudyard; Nagai, Kaori; Nagai, Kaori; Montefiore, Jan

• ISBN13: 9780141442396
• ISBN10: 0141442395
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-26
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Plain Tales from the Hills, Rudyard Kipling's first collection of short stories, established his reputation and brought India to the British imagination. Including the stories 'Lispeth', 'Beyond the Pale' and 'In the Pride of His Youth', they tell of soldiers, wise children, exiles, forbidden romances and divided identities, creating a rich portrait of Anglo-Indian society. Originally published for a newspaper in Lahore when Kipling was a journalist, the tales were later revised by him to re-create as vividly as possible the sights and smells of India for readers at home. Far from being a celebration of empire, these stories explore the barriers between races, classes and sexes, and convey all the tensions and contradictions of colonial life.

Author Biography

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865. During his time at the United Services College, he began to write poetry, privately publishing Schoolboy Lyrics in 1881. The following year he started work as a journalist in India, and while there produced a body of work, stories, sketches, and poems —including “Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” and “Danny Deever”—which made him an instant literary celebrity when he returned to England in 1889. While living in Vermont with his wife, an American, Kipling wrote The Jungle Books, Just So Stories, and Kim—which became widely regarded as his greatest long work, putting him high among the chronicles of British expansion. Kipling returned to England in 1902, but he continued to travel widely and write, though he never enjoyed the literary esteem of his early years. In 1907, he became the first British writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He died in 1936

Table of Contents

Chronology	p. vii
General Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xix
Note on the Text	p. xxxix
Further Reading	p. xli
Plain Tales From The Hills	p. 1
Lispeth	p. 5
Three and - an Extra	p. 10
Thrown Away	p. 14
Miss Youghal's Sais	p. 23
Bitters Neat	p. 29
'Yoked with an Unbeliever'	p. 34
False Dawn	p. 39
The Rescue of Pluffles	p. 47
Cupid's Arrows	p. 52
The Three Musketeers	p. 57
His Chance in Life	p. 63
Watches of the Night	p. 69
The Other Man	p. 74
Haunted Subalterns	p. 78
Consequences	p. 84
The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin	p. 89
The Taking of Lungtungpen	p. 94
A Germ-Destroyer	p. 100
Kidnapped	p. 105
The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly	p. 110
In the House of Suddhoo	p. 115
His Wedded Wife	p. 123
The Broken-Link Handicap	p. 129
Beyond the Pale	p. 134
In Error	p. 140
A Bank Fraud	p. 144
Tods' Amendment	p. 151
The Daughter of the Regiment	p. 157
In the Pride of His Youth	p. 163
Pig	p. 169
The Rout of the White Hussars	p. 176
The Bronckhorst Divorce-Case	p. 186
Venus Annodomini	p. 192
The Bisara of Pooree	p. 197
A Friend's Friend	p. 202
The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows	p. 208
The Madness of Private Ortheris	p. 214
The Story of Muhammad Din	p. 222
On the Strength of a Likeness	p. 226
Wressley of the Foreign Office	p. 232
By Word of Mouth	p. 237
To be Filed for Reference	p. 242
Appendix: Two Original Versions of 'Plain Tales'	p. 250
Notes	p. 263
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