This collection brings together seventeen of Kiplingโs 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 Kiplingโs legendary powers of observation. The title story, โThe Man Who Would Be King,โ tells of two British vagabonds who set off to establish a small kingdom among primitive tribesmen in Afghanistan.
From Hauksbeeโs Simla drawing room to Mulvaneyโs 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 โThe Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes,โ โThe Phantom Rickshaw,โ โGemini,โ โA Wayside Comedy,โ โAt Twenty-Two,โ โThe Education of Otis Yeere,โ โThe Hill of Illusion,โ โDray Wara Yow Dee,โ โThe Judgment of Dungara,โ โWith the Main Guard,โ โIn Flood Time,โ โOnly a Subaltern,โ โBaa, Baa, Black Sheep,โ โAt the Pitโs Mouth,โ โBlack Jack,โ โOn the City Wall,โ and โThe Man Who Would Be King.โ
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.