Kim (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Underrated masterpiece

Ok, we all know that he was a colonialist and at times bordered on bigotry, but this book is Rudyard Kipling's best and it is an absolute masterpiece. It's the ultimate tale of an Englishman gone native: James Bond meets Siddhartha. Kipling's identification with Kim, his young protagonist, is complete. This is the work of a man passionately in love with India, and in possession of extraordinary powers of observation and description.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Terriible version. Large sections duplicated, others out of order.

The editing of this copy is terrible. Many OCR errors/typos, large sections duplicated, some parts out of order,editing remarks left in. Worst download Ihave ever made. The book itself is a good read, but download a different version.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

More relevant now than ever

Kipling has become, in these post-colonial days, the man you love to hate. Yet few have equaled Kipling¿s story of an Indian beggar boy whose experience in the heyday of the British raj forces him into personal transformation that entirely illuminates the impact of colonialism on a subject people. The novel, owing to the strength of its narrative and its fatally believable realism, hovers on the dark side of modern consciousness, as does much of Kipling. The writer who invented the phrase ¿The White Man¿s Burden¿ is someone many people would like to forget. But one testimony to the ongoing power of Kim is the recent novel The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru, a descant on Kipling¿s narrative of the problem of identity in British India. The fact that an Indian author borrows Kipling¿s idea and shapes a story on Kiplingesque lines is simply testimony to the ongoing authority of this classic.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An entertaining and Touching book

One of the most beautiful tales of friendship I have ever read, Kim is much more. Rudyard Kipling created in Kim a novel in the mold of the classic heroic journey that has a pedigree reaching back to Gilgamesh and the Odyssey. With Kim, a young white boy, sahib, at it's center and his friend and mentor the Lama, we see the world of India in the nineteenth century as it is ruled by Great Britain. Kipling raises questions of identity (Who is Kim?), culture, spirituality and the nature of fate. Most of all he depicts the growth of a young man through his quest to find his destiny and the bond that develops between Kim as 'chela' or disciple and his Lama. The greatness of this novel lies in Kipling's ability to combine all of these themes with a natural style that conveys the richness both of the lives of Kim and his friends and the fecundity of life in India. One of the most enduring images for me was the close tie Kim has with the land itself. This is shown several times throughout the novel culminating in his final renewal when stretched out on the earth near the end of the novel. The epic quest is successful as this novel unfolds a positive and uplifting narrative.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

I Love Kim!!

I love Kim!! It is the most amazing book and it touches you. Kim my grandfather wanted me to read it and I have to say I was a little sceptical at first , but it turned out to be asdonding. YOU must read this book and watch the movie with Errol Flynn!! Its is simaler to the book in some was. I am 11 and I love Kim and Rudyard Kiplings books.I would recommend this to someone. I have to my friend Caroline. I also recommed Kim the movie with Errol Flynn it is the best of them all.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Brilliant Novel, Racist Author

Kim is an exceptional piece of literature relating to imperialistic India. Kipling's use of Indian diction, especially with the lama. The novel is a truthful depiction pertaining to the confusion of race, religion, and imperial expansion. The author, Rudyard Kipling, however, was an absolute racist, which almost makes one want to hurl the book against a wall instead of reading it. Kipling coined the despicable term 'white man's burden', which related to the need for expansion in order to 'civilize' the 'savage' man in the East. I love the novel, but loathe its creator.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Recommended

I enjoyed reading this book. I am currently reading a list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century and it was one of the most interesting books from the list that I've read thus far.

Virtually unreadable

A truly awful scan. I can't think of a single mistake that WASN'T made. Simply an unreadable scan of a truly wonderful book. Unforgivable.

had to discard

print too small--lines too long--unreadable

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

KIM's Womenfolk

55 years ago I wrote an A+ term paper on "The Motherhood of Lady MacBeth." Did I make much of little in Shakespeare's play?" *** Are the handful of women in Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel of British India, more important to KIM than Lady MacBeth's motherhood? Yes. But the women are background, peripheral to the spiritual quest of Kimball O'Hara between ages 13 and 17. Very few European women are mentioned in KIM: (1) spy chief Colonel Creighton's wife for her brief role as hostess in Umballa for the Army Commander in Chief; and (2) Annie Shott, Kim's Irish domestic servant mother. Annie died of cholera when Kim was three. Perhaps author Kipling killed her off because of the well-attested negative cross-cultural influences of British Memsahibs within the British Empire. They often distanced themselves socially, even the poor like Annie O'Hara, from the sea of alien natives surrounding them. It seems important that Kim lost his Irish mother early, and, not long after that, his still young ex-Sergeant Irish father died of drink and opium. Parents were around long enough to teach Kim the ruling class's English language and to make sure he knew his rights as a potential ruler of India. Their early deaths freed Kim from British prejudice against Indian Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. White Kim grew towards manhood uniquely open-minded. *** On his father's death a new woman was there for Kim: his father's unnamed mistress, "the half-caste woman who looked after him" in Lahore. She insisted that the white boy wear European "trousers, shirt and a battered hat." But impish Kim often dyed his skin even darker than the sun had burnt it and passed himself off as a low-caste Hindu for secret missions carrying love letters to and from other men's wives across the rooftops of Lahore for the Pathan horse trader Mahboob Ali . *** Kipling sketches scenes of a wealthy hill country noblewoman who travels down to the hot plains to visit her married daughter. She wins Buddhist merit by providing food and shelter to Kim and the Red Lama of Tibet whose disciple Kim made himself. But the woman, though kind-hearted, also wore out the aged lama with talk and requests for charms to assure the health of her grandchildren. *** Several native women remark on the good looks of our teenage spy-in-training for "the Great Game." Kim is sure to break many a girl's heart. Towards novel's end, the lama, seriously injured by two Tsarist spies, finds shelter with Kim in the tiny Himalayan hamlet Shamlegh-under-the-Snow. The still beautiful Woman of Shamlegh despatches her two husbands with others to carry the lama to the healing lowlands on a litter. She comes on to Kim and he sees it. It has happened before "in lands where women make the love." Kim is annoyed: "How can a man follow the Way or the Great Game when he is so-always pestered by women?" Previous women and girls had treated Kim as a boy. Now the Woman of Shamlegh flirts as woman does with man. Why? Because disguised Kim reminds her of a young huntsman Sahib she had once nursed to health. He promised to return and marry her. He did not, despite her education in English by "Ker-lis-ti-an" missionaries. Knowing what she wants, Kim "kissed her on the cheek, adding in English: 'Thank you verree much, my dear.'" *** Fortunately, there is much more in Kim to delight you than his fleeting relations with women. -OOO-

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic!

This outstanding work of literature is brought to life by the striking talents of the reader. Perfect intonation, perfect voicing, and the stunning text in all its glory!

Kim - An Adventure across India

Kim is certainly a classic. It tells the tale of Kim O¿Hara a free spirited Anglo Indian, who adventures across India with his spiritual guide in search of a secret holy river, and is slowly drawn into the world of espionage. Rudyard Kipling aptly describes Kim¿s journey into manhood, beautifully illustrating his experiences, travels and the extraordinary people he meets. The book really captures pre-independence India well, but undeniably seen from the eyes of an colonialist.

Kim is one of the best

I believe Kim is one of the best books that Kipling has written in his career. It's a great story which will make you feel like your in India with Kim.

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