William Collins The Jungle Book, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paperback, Rudyard Kipling

Author: Oliver Twist

Rating: 5

Review: Mowgli '...carried his manners with his knife, and that never left him.' I ought to declare an interest from the outset. For me, 'The Jungle Books' are the book of books. I think this might also have been true for a number of past generations, although rumour has it that it is less true today. If so, then that is today's loss. I am of the view that had Kipling not written 'The Jungle Books' then we might not have had later works like 'Animal Farm' and many others (not all of them animal fables) in which the reader will have detected the echoes of Kipling's great work. It is also only fair to point out that 'The Jungle Books' were themselves influenced by Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' books. Although, as a matter of taste or temperament, one may prefer certain of these stories to others, I think it is neverthless true to say that 'The Jungle Books' contain not a single dud, nor dull story. A number of the 'Jungle Book' stories appear to show Kipling revisiting his own experience of childhood by way of allegory. There are certainly elements of this to be found in the Mowgli stories, but I think the most fully realised example of it can be found in 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'. Rikki-Tikki's early seperation from his own parents; the immediate threats posed by the new environment in which he finds himself, as well as the distant but affectionate relationship which he forms to the parental figures who own 'the big bungalow', all chime, in my view, with different aspects of Kipling's own childhood. It is also interesting to note that Mowgli, Rikki-Tikki and Toomai (of the elephants) are all native youngsters, of one species or another, and therefore somewhat distanced from the adult 'Sahibs' who, in the cases of Rikki-Tikki and Toomai, hold the positions of worldly and generally benevolent authority over their lives. In his autobiography, 'Something of Myself', the Bombay-born Kipling notes that for the first six years of his life he spoke and thought in the vernacular, mainly within the native Indian society provided by his bearers and his parents' household staff, and only spoke English, haltingly translated out of the vernacular, when taken into the parental presence. In my view, the personal identification with the native child and the native society which surrounds him, which is characteristic of 'The Jungle Books', is one of the autobiographical elements to be found within its pages. And the distant but affectionate relationship between these characters and the 'Sahibs' in their lives also reflects, in my view, Kipling's own relationship to his parents. It may be that within his developing sensibility the British Empire itself became an extension and a projection of this formative parental relationship. Within this context, it is also worth noting that between the ages of six and twelve Kipling was more literally distanced from his parents, whom he idealised and adored, by their returning to India after a brief trip to England, leaving Rudyard and his sister behind in a foster home at Southsea. But this suggestion of autobiography by allegory is not intended to minimize, nor underestimate, the quality of the creative imagination which is at work in 'The Jungle Books'. As flights of the imagination go, for example, few go better than the flight of the Bandar-Log (Monkey People) through the treetops of the Jungle, carrying with them an unwilling Mowgli as both their hostage and their trophy. The subsequent battle at 'Cold Lairs' (a deserted Moghul city, buried deep within the Jungle) between Bagheera, Baloo, Kaa and the Bandar-Log for possession of Mowgli - for his life - is likewise a marvel of invention, not to mention the occasion of some tremendous prose writing. And this is far from being the only example of Kipling's creative imagination functioning at its highest level to be found within the pages of 'The Jungle Books'. The quality of much of the poetry which accompanies these stories is also very high. In fact, here is as good a place as any in which to say that one of the principal strengths of Kipling's prose writing is that it is rooted in poetry. His prose is informed by a poetic sensibility and also exhibits the technical virtuosity which springs from his familiarity with a technically difficult form. There are very few writers who can write both poetry and prose to the standard that Rudyard Kipling could. The 'Jungle Book' stories provide Kipling with a variety of opportunities and ways in which to re-imagine his own childhood, and therebye to re-examine and re-interpret it as well - to make sense of it all and to make of it, too, a curious 'through the looking glass' study of human nature and society, as well as a medium for articulating a realistic ethics, or code of conduct, for survival in that society. If you like, 'The Jungle Books' are a 'How to Survive' manual written by one who has survived childhood adversity, in which the animals are very like people, or perhaps it is that people are very like animals. Aside from the beauty of the Jungle, which is repeatedly reflected in Kipling's prose descriptions of it, there is much to be wary of in Nature as seen through the looking glass of 'The Jungle Books', and there is correspondingly much need to tailor your character and conduct in order to survive it. But there is also great friendship and even love to be found in this 'Jungle'. Hence Bagheera, Baloo, Akela, Kaa and the others. Given the contents of the six harmful years which he spent as a child at Southsea, what surprises me the most about Kipling's approach is how magnanimous it is. Certainly there are the occasional wrist flicks, or pen flicks, of less attractive impulses to be found within the volume and variety of his work, but they are nothing like so central to it as they might have been had he developed a greater taste or talent for bitterness. Clearly this was the case towards the end of the nineteenth century, when 'The Jungle Books' were written. It may be that later on in his life Kipling suffered a number of personal and perhaps even ideological losses which contributed to the emergence of a noticeable bleakness of vision which can be found in his later work. There are also a few surprisingly adult puns to be found in 'The Jungle Books', most particularly in the story called 'Her Majesty's Servants', about a group of military camp animals who are thrown together for a conversation one stormy and disturbed night. Sayeth the troop-horse: 'You could put a whole regiment of Dicks on my back without making me feel any better.' This put me in mind of a remark which Kipling made in the pages of 'Something of Myself': '...the tales had to be read by children, before people realized that they were meant for grown-ups.' Although, by way of qualification, it ought to be added that Kipling was referring to the Puck books, rather than to 'The Jungle Books', I neverthless think that his remark remains relevant. Far from simply being 'books for children', 'The Jungle Books' are mature works by Rudyard Kipling, the second one perhaps being more so than the first. By which I mean that 'The Second Jungle Book' is a deepening and a development of the first, excellent though the first remains. Besides the steady maturing of Mowgli himself (he departs 'The Second Jungle Book' in early manhood) another example of this 'deepening and development' would be the entire story within a story - a complete creation myth, as told by Hathi (the elephant) - which can be found within the pages of 'How Fear Came'. The story-within-a-story becoming something of a characteristic feature of 'The Second Jungle Book', and one which was largely absent from the First. I think the stories of the Second Jungle Book have generally more richness of detail and texture to them as well. As examples of this, I would cite 'Quiquern', which is the finest and most closely observed story of the Frozen North that I have read; or the beautiful storytelling and prose writing of 'The Miracle of Purun Bhagat', a characteristically Indian tale which has long been one of my 'Second Jungle Book' favourites. Also, and regardless of what one may think of its politics - which strike me as being surprisingly even-handed for a son of British parents, born in India, under the Raj - 'The Undertakers' is another high point of 'The Second Jungle Book'; a twenty-page masterpiece of the short story writer's art. And immediately following this tale comes 'The King's Ankus' which, for me, constitutes the apex of the Mowgli stories. The treasure within the story itself functioning as the perfect symbol for the riches to be found within 'The Jungle Books' as a whole. Only the desire not to go on too long, and therebye bore the reader, has prevented me from doing justice to other great Second Jungle Book stories like 'The Spring Running' or 'Red Dog' - which rivals 'The King's Ankus' in its qualities of imagination and execution - as well as to Stuart Tresilian's still unsurpassed illustrations for both 'Jungle Books', which grace this particular edition. --------------------------------------------------- Note: This review relates to The Reprint Society's 1956 hardback edition of 'The Jungle Books'.

Author: Natalie

Rating: 1

Review: I have bought this as a present for a friend who loves the jungle book and I am absolutely appalled in the way I have received this ... it is stained, there was red marks on it that I had to rub off and the print is rubbing off on the front and back ... its meant to be new but looks used .... pages are stained too ... by reading all the other one star review it looks like this seems to be a common problem