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“Who is Kim?” He considered his own identity, a
thing he had never done before, till his head
swam. He was one insignificant person in all
this roaring whirl of India, going southward to
he knew not what fate.
Kim is Rudyard Kipling's most successful novel.
Published in 1901, it is the story of the
orphaned son of a soldier in the Irish regiment.
The novel is set in India, then a British
colony. Kim spends his childhood as a waif in
Lahore where he meets a Tibetan lama. Kim
embarks on a journey to locate the mystical
river the lama is looking for only to be found
by his father's old regiment which wants to
groom him into a “Sahib.” Packed with lots of
adventure and moments of self-discovery, the
novel paints a vibrant picture of India.
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on
December 30, 1865. He spent his early childhood
in India. He was sent to England for his
education, where, for the next six years he
lived a life of misery in a rigidly Calvinist
foster home. At the age of twelve, he was placed
in a private school.
He returned to India in 1882 and worked as a
newspaper reporter as well as a part-time
writer. In 1886 he published his first volume of
poetry, Departmental Ditties, and between 1887
and 1889 six volumes of short stories set in
India. When he returned to England he found
himself already recognised and acclaimed as a
brilliant writer. Over the following years he
published some of his most exquisite works
including his most acclaimed poem “Recessional”
and most famed novel Kim. In 1907 Kipling won
the Nobel Prize in literature. |
