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A white youth in India, becomes friends with an old ascetic priest, the lama. The boy juggles Imperialist life with his spiritual bond to the lama, who searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life. KIM captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj. This edition of Kipling's classic masterpiece features a critically acclaimed Introduction by Edward W.
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
Customer Review: KIM by Rudyard Kipling
Kim is Rudyard Kipling's novel about a white orphan, Kimball O'Hara, in India. It was first published in 1901, and is often considered to be Kipling's best novel. In the novel, Kim befriends a Tibetan Lama and becomes his disciple. Later, the British force him to attend a British school. Afterward, he rejoins the Lama, and becomes involved in political intrigue between Britain and Russia.
Kim is noteworthy for Kipling's lush depictions of India, its people, its culture, and its religions. In spite of everything that goes on in this novel, there's no real plot - it's just Kim's wanderings around India. And this is the vehicle Kipling uses to celebrate India. This is well and good, but it isn't all that interesting. The story loses quite a lot of steam after Kim gets into British custody. Perhaps the story holds more allure for those of us who have not been to India (I have, several times).
Ultimately, this is about as good a portrayal of India as you can find in a novel. That is what this book should be read for, not its story.
Customer Review: A wonderful but somewhat esoteric story of India
Kim is the most popular of Rudyard Kipling's novels and has received both critical acclaim and negative reviews over the years. Both assessments are valid to some degree. On the positive side, Kipling has written what is acknowledged to be the best description of colonial India ever created by a native or a foreigner. Much of the negative commentary on the book has come from the intertwining of the story of a boy and a holy man each seeking his dream (good) with the political and military intrigues of the "Great Game," the political rivalry among European powers over the middle and south Asia.
The book begins with Kim, a young boy, living on the streets of Lahore in what is now Pakistan but was then a part of British India. His father was an Irish soldier but Kim is clearly a street-wise Indian. He bears some resemblance to Dickens' character, Dodger, but is not as dishonest (although he is not above deceit and trickery to get what he wants). He meets a lama from Tibet who is seeking a river. Kim has his own goal following a dream that tells him to seek a red bull on a field of green. Together they set off to find their goals with Kim acting as the chela (disciple) of the holy man.
This beginning is promising enough, but one problem for the non-native Indian is the extensive references to Indian concepts, terms and especially religious references. Despite this flaw (for the non-Indian reader at least) the adventure is colorful and the characters the two meet along the way make for both humor and interesting situations.
But Kim also is involved with a somewhat mysterious horse trader cum spy, Mahbub Ali who gives him a message to deliver pertaining to some planned military action. Kim delivers the message and eventually comes across a British military camp where he sees a flag bearing a red bull on a field of green. Kim is intrigued by this discover and in an attempt to learn more he is collared by a chaplain attached to the group and falls into the their hands. Determined to make a civilized person out of Kim the chaplain arranges for Kim to attend school. The lama, distraught by the loss of his chela comes to agree to pay for Kim's education believing that it is best for him to learn the white man's ways. The pair are reunited as the story draws to a close there is a more or less suitable ending. But the intrusion of the Great Game scenario into the story, even though it adds the amazing character, Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, does distract from what should be the main idea, the evolving love and relationship between a young boy and a old man, each seeking his dream.
I rate Kim at 4 stars because it really is worth reading although some readers will skim through some parts that are too esoteric for Westerners.
Customer Review: Review of Kim
Great book...have been reading it in a hisotry class...easy to read, flows well and engaging.
Customer Review: Kim: East and West in combination
Kim is Rudyard Kipling's mysterious India: a combination of East and West, of mystery and mysticism. Kim is not the India of history books. It is not a neat historical fiction nor is it a simple adventure story in a slightly exotic setting.
Kim was published in 1901 and is the story of the orphaned son (Kimball O'Hara, known as Kim) of a soldier in an Irish regiment. The novel is set in the Indian subcontinent where Kim spends his childhood as a waif in Lahore.
The story of Kim's journeys, as he moves between the East and the West can be enjoyed as an adventure story or read as a window into British colonialism. Kim himself straddles a number of different worlds but never really belongs to any of them completely.
While the novel includes a richly detailed portrait of Indian life and assumes that western mastery is desirable, Kipling frequently identifies similarities between the cultures of India and those of the Europeans in India.
This is a novel which I think is best read twice. Once as a child - for the adventure and mystery and again as an adult for the broader story.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Customer Review: A Good Spy Story That You Really Need to Read for Yourself
'Kim', taken solely on its own terms, is a late 19th century adventure tale, an early spy story, a travelogue of northern India, a coming-of-age story all set in the midst of the Great Game, the Russo-British contest for imperial dominance in Central Asia. It's a good tale well told, if the language is somewhat dated for the modern reader.
But, of course, 'Kim' is generally not simply taken on it own terms because its author Rudyard Kipling came to personify British imperialism as much as Lord Kitchener. The Norton Edition includes excellent articles that provide historical context as well as several critical essays. I consider myself an anti-imperialist, but also admittedly somewhat of a romantic about the British Empire, and I did not detect jingoism in 'Kim'.
Readers interested in even more background will want to read Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game. Readers needing to be disabused of romanticism about British imperialism may want to consider Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya.
At the end of the day, 'Kim' is quite a good adventure tale and a book that really need to read for yourself. Highly Recommended.
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