The Man Who Would Be King - Softcover

Kipling, Rudyard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4871875261 ISBN 13: 9784871875264

Publisher: Ishi Press, 2015

Synopsis

This book, "The Man Who Would Be King" by Rudyard Kipling, was published in 1888 and in 1975 was made in to one of the all time greatest movies ever staring Sean Connery, who is best known for playing James Bond, Agent 007 in six James Bond movies including "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger". The co-stars were Michael Caine, best known for the title role in "Alfie", and Christopher Plummer who played Rudyard Kipling. The movie was nominated for four academy awards. It shows fantastic photography and scenery. The story starts with Rudyard Kipling working in a newspaper office, as he did for ten years in real life from 1882 to 1892. It must have been a daily experience for adventurers and beggars to come into Kipling's office with fantastic tales to tell. At the time that Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Man Who Would Be King" in 1888, Kafiristan was more of a fabled imaginary place as no European had ever been there and lived to tell about it. However, he must have realized that Kafirstan was a real place. A number of famous people had written about it, even though nobody had seen it. So Kipling wrote this make believe story about a place high in the mountains with fair-skinned women of incredible beauty, who worshiped pagan gods and were descended from soldiers of Alexander the Great. Kipling wrote "These women are whiter than you or me. . . . It's a mountainous country, and the women of those parts are very beautiful." At the time Kipling wrote this book in 1888, no European man had been to Kafirstan and lived to tell about it. The books "The Gilgit Game" and "Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1820-95" by John Keay describes attempts by British adventurers to reach Kafirstan, but all had been killed. This was before the Durand Line had been drawn that separates Afghanistan from what is now Pakistan and divides Kafirstan into two parts, the Afghan side where the Red Kafirs lived but is now called Nuristan and the Pakistan side where the Black Kafirs still live in the Kalash valleys of Bumboret Birir and Rumbur. The first European man to reach Kafirstan and return alive was George Scott Robertson. It was not long thereafter when the British explorer, adventurer and army officer George Scott Robertson went there and returned with the report that the place was real. There are or were two kinds of Kafirs: Red and Black. The Red Kafirs were in Afghanistan but now they have converted to Islam so they are not Kafirs any more. The Black Kafirs are the Kalash, so named because their women wear black robes. There are several other instances where the movie was updated from the book to reflect the reality of Kafirstan. In the movie, there is a man and his wife from the village of Kamdesh where a wife is considered equal to a cow. Kamdesh is a real place in Nuristan. The real person Alexander the Great did marry a real woman named Roxanne, but she was from Balkh near Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan, not from Nuristan. Chitralis do play polo and it is believed the game was invented there or in neighboring Gilgit, but they are not known to play the game with a human head as a ball.

About this title

About the Author:

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was born in Bombay, British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), Kim (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King"; and his poems, including Mandalay, Gunga Din, and (1910). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author Henry James said of him: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." He was the first English language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. Among other honors, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century. A young George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". According to critic Douglas Kerr: "He is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."

About this edition

• Publisher: Ishi Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 4871875261
• ISBN 13: 9784871875264
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 82