This collection brings together seventeen of Kiplingâs early stories, written between 1885 and 1888, when he was working as a journalist in India. Wry comedies of British officialdom alternate with glimpses into the harsh lives of the common soldiers and the Indian poor, revealing Kiplingâs legendary powers of observation. The title story, âThe Man Who Would Be King,â tells of two British vagabonds who set off to establish a small kingdom among primitive tribesmen in Afghanistan.
From Hauksbeeâs Simla drawing room to Mulvaneyâs barracks cot and the wild hills of Kafiristan, Kipling re-creates the India he knew in stories by turns ironic and sentimental, compassionate and bitter, displaying the brilliance that has captivated readers for over a century.
Stories included here are âThe Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes,â âThe Phantom Rickshaw,â âGemini,â âA Wayside Comedy,â âAt Twenty-Two,â âThe Education of Otis Yeere,â âThe Hill of Illusion,â âDray Wara Yow Dee,â âThe Judgment of Dungara,â âWith the Main Guard,â âIn Flood Time,â âOnly a Subaltern,â âBaa, Baa, Black Sheep,â âAt the Pitâs Mouth,â âBlack Jack,â âOn the City Wall,â and âThe Man Who Would Be King.â
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. The celebrated author of The Jungle Book and Kim, he was born in India during the British Raj which inspired much of his work. He also wrote two dystopian science fiction tales: With the Night Mail (1905) and 'As Easy As A. B. C.' (1912).
Fred Williams, a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, works in theater, film, television, and radio in England, Ireland, and America. Besides narrating audiobooks, he is a performer in living-history reenactments, an archer, and a poet.