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KIPLING, RUDYARD (1865— )

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 826 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KIPLING, RUDYARD (1865— ) , See also:British author, was See also:born in Bombay on the 3oth of See also:December 1865. His See also:father, See also:John See also:Lockwood Kipling (1837—1911), an artist. of considerable ability, was from 1875 to 1893 See also:curator of the See also:Lahore museum in See also:India. His See also:mother was See also:Miss Alice See also:Macdonald of See also:Birmingham, two of whose sisters were married respectively to See also:Sir E. Burne-See also:Jones and Sir See also:Edward See also:Poynter. He was educated at the See also:United Services See also:College, Westward Ho, See also:North See also:Devon, of which a some-what lurid See also:account is given in his See also:story Stalky and Co. On his return to India he became at the See also:age of seventeen the sub-editor of the Lahore See also:Civil and Military See also:Gazette. In 1886, in his twenty-first See also:year, he published Departmental Ditties, a See also:volume of See also:light See also:verse chiefly satirical, only in two or three poems giving promise of his See also:authentic poetical See also:note. In 1887 he published See also:Plain Tales from the Hills, a collection mainly of the stories contributed to his own See also:journal. During the next two years he brought out, in six slim See also:paper-covered volumes of See also:Wheeler's Railway Library (See also:Allahabad), Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, In See also:Black and See also:White, Under the Deodars, The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Wee Willie Winkee, at a See also:rupee apiece. These were in See also:form and substance a continuation of the Plain Tales. This See also:series of tales, all written before the author was twenty-four, revealed a new See also:master of fiction. A few, but those the best, he afterwards said that his father gave him.

The See also:

rest were the See also:harvest of his own See also:powers of observation vitalized by See also:imagination. In method they owed something to Bret See also:Harte; in See also:matter and spirit they were absolutely See also:original. They were unequal, as his books continued to be throughout; the sketches of Anglo-See also:Indian social See also:life being generally inferior to the rest. The See also:style was to some extent disfigured by jerkiness and mannered tricks. But Mr Kipling possessed the supreme spell of the story-See also:teller to entrance and transport. The freshness of the invention, the variety of See also:character, the vigour of narrative, the raciness of See also:dialogue, the magic of See also:atmosphere, were alike remarkable. The soldier-stories, especially the exuberant vitality of the See also:cycle which contains the immortal '/Iulvaney, established the author's fame throughout the See also:world. The See also:child-stories and tales of the British See also:official were not less masterly, while the tales of native life and of See also:adventure " beyond the See also:pale " disclosed an even finer and deeper vein of See also:romance. India, which had been an old story for generations of See also:English-men, was revealed in these brilliant pictures as if seen for the first See also:time in its variety, See also:colour and See also:passion, vivid as See also:mirage, enchanting as the Arabian Nights. The new author's See also:talent was quickly recognized in India, but it was not till the books reached See also:England that his true See also:rank was appreciated and proclaimed. Between 1887 and 1889 he travelled through India, See also:China, See also:Japan and See also:America, finally arriving in England to find himself already famous. His travel sketches, contributed to The Civil and Military Gazette and The See also:Pioneer, were afterwards collected (the author's See also:hand having been forced by unauthorized publication) in the two volumes From See also:Sea to Sea (1899).

A further set of Indian tales, equal to the best, appeared in See also:

Macmillan's See also:Magazine and were republished with others in Life's See also:Handicap (1891). In The Light that Failed (1891, after appearing with a different ending in Lippincott's Magazine) Mr Kipling essayed his first See also:long story (dramatized 1905), but with See also:comparative unsuccess. In his subsequent See also:work his delight in the display of descriptive and verbal technicalities See also:grew on him. His polemic against " the sheltered life " and " little Englandism " became more didactic. His terseness sometimes degenerated into abruptness and obscurity. But in the meanwhile his See also:genius became prominent in verse. Readers of the Plain Tales had been impressed by the snatches of See also:poetry prefixed to them for See also:motto, certain of them being subscribed " Barrack See also:Room Ballad." Mr Kipling now contributed to the See also:National Observer, then edited by W. E. See also:Henley, a series of Barrack Room See also:Ballads. These vigorous verses in soldier See also:slang, when published in a See also:book in 1892, together with the See also:fine ballad of " See also:East and See also:West " and other poems, won for their author a second fame, wider than he had attained as a story-teller. In this volume the Ballads of the " See also:Bolivar " and of the" Clampherdown," introducing Mr Kipling's poetry of the ocean and the See also:engine-room, and " The See also:Flag of England," finding a See also:voice for the Imperial sentiment, which—largely under the See also:influence of Mr Kipling's own writings—had been rapidly gaining force in England, gave the See also:key-note of much of his later verse. In 1898 Mr Kipling paid the first of several visits to See also:South See also:Africa and became imbued with a type of imperialism that reacted on his literature, not altogether to its See also:advantage.

Before finally settling in England Mr Kipling lived some years in. America and married in 1892 Miss See also:

Caroline Starr Balestier, See also:sister of the See also:Wolcott Balestier to whom he dedicated Barrack Room Ballads, and with whom in collaboration he wrote the Naulahka (1891), one of his less successful books. The next collection of stories, Many Inventions (1893), contained the splendid Mulvaney extravaganza, " My See also:Lord the See also:Elephant "; a vividly realized See also:tale of See also:metempsychosis, " The Finest Story in the World "; and in that fascinating tale " In the Rukh," the prelude to the next new See also:exhibition of the author's genius. This came in 1894 with The See also:Jungle Book, followed in 1895 by The Second Jungle Book. With these inspired beast-stories Kipling conquered a new world and a new See also:audience, and produced what many critics regard as his most flawless work. His See also:chief subsequent publications were The Seven Seas (poems), 1896; Captains Courageous (a See also:yarn of deep-sea See also:fishery), 1897; The See also:Day's Work (collected stories), 1898; A See also:Fleet in Being (an account of a cruise in a See also:man-of-See also:war), 1898; Stalky and Co. (mentioned above), 1899; From Sea to Sea (mentioned above) ,1899; Kim,19oz; Just So Stories (for See also:children), 1902; The Five Nations (poems, concluding with what proved Mr Kipling's most universally known and popular poem, " Recessional," originally published in The Times on the 17th of See also:July 1897 on the occasion of See also:Queen See also:Victoria's second See also:jubilee), 1903; Traffics and Discoveries (collected stories), 1904; Puck of Pook's See also:Hill (stories), 1906; Actions and Reactions (stories), 1909. Of these Kim was notable as far the most successful of Mr Kipling's longer narratives, though it is itself rather in the nature of a See also:string of episodes. But everything he wrote, even to a farcical extravaganza inspired by his See also:enthusiasm for the motor-See also:car, breathed the meteoric See also:energy that was the nature of the man. lg vigorous and unconventional poet, a pioneer in the See also:modern phase of See also:literary Imperialism, and one of the rare masters in English See also:prose of the See also:art of the See also:short story, Mr Kipling had already by the opening of the loth See also:century won the most conspicuous See also:place among the creative literary forces of his day. His position in English literature was recognized in 1907 by the See also:award to him of the See also:Nobel See also:prize. See Rudyard Kipling's See also:chapter in My First Book {Chatto, 1894); " A Bibliography of Rudyard Kipling," by John See also:Lane, in Rudyard Kipling: a See also:Criticism, by See also:Richard de Gallienne; " Mr Kipling's Short Stories " in Questions at Issue, by See also:Edmund See also:Gosse (1893) ; " Mr Kipling's Stories " in Essays in Little, by See also:Andrew See also:Lang;" Mr Kipling's Stories," by J. M.

See also:

Barrie in the Contemporary See also:Review (See also:March 1891); articles in the Quarterly Review (July 1892) and See also:Edinburgh Review (See also:Jan. 1898) ; and See also:section on Kipling in Poets of the Younger See also:Generation, by See also:William See also:Archer (1902). See also for bibliography to 1903 English Illustrated Magazine, new series, vol. See also:xxx. pp. 298 and 429-432. (W. P.

End of Article: KIPLING, RUDYARD (1865— )

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