J's Pages

I'm thinking that this is a collection of three works by Rudyard Kipling. I mean, the title is always presented as three lines and running them together would make for one weird title. But there is no explanatory text or any sort of division to indicate where one work might start and the other end. If it is such a collection, then somebody (Doubleday, Page and Company) went to the trouble to publish two collections of short stories and a play as a single volume. Weird. But maybe that's the way they did things in 1913, when the book was published. Or maybe anyone but a total literary ignoramus would know these three great works by Kipling and have no trouble in ascertaining the correct divisions. Anyway, it was a very good read, whatever it was. The first number of stories deal with British soldiers in late 19th Century India, specifically three gents named Mulvaney, Ortheris and Learoyd. It is chock full of dialect--including words I can't decipher and names I don't know. But that didn't keep me from enjoying many of the tales. Then around page 111 is stuck this multi-act play about a certain Captain Gadsby and his relationship with a young woman. The language is less obtuse and it is a rather intriguing and touching tale. Anyway, on page 213, after a one page poem,  the short stories start up again. This time, however, the common theme seems to be natives of India, which are ironically easier to understand than the British tommies. It's not a volume I would attempt to purchase, but if I was given a copy I think I would probably hang onto it. I would definitely recommend that y'all check it out.

LibraryThing link

Labels: CheckItOut, RudyardKipling

// posted by John @ 10:40 PM