Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game - Softcover

Peter Hopkirk

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472086340 ISBN 13: 9780472086344

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1999

Synopsis

This book is for all those who love Kim, the masterpiece of Indian life in which Kipling immortalized the Great Game, the centuries-old power struggle between Russia and Great Britain in the depths of Central Asia. Fascinated since childhood by this strange tale of an orphan boy's recruitment into the Indian secret service, Peter Hopkirk here explores the many mysteries surrounding Kipling's great novel.
"This is a fascinating, brilliantly written book, as interesting in its description of the author's journeys as it is in its investigation of the reality that lies behind 'the finest novel in the English language with an Indian theme,'" as Kim has been described by Nirad Chaudhuri." --T. J. Binyon, Times Literary Supplement
"In an original combination of autobiography, travel writing, and literary detective work, Hopkirk manages accessibly to tell the story of Kim and his own obsession with it. Hopkirk illustrates how creatively and thoroughly the reading of a work of fiction can shape a whole life's experience." -- John R. Bradley, Independent on Sunday
". . . a reminder of just how absorbing was the world Kipling knew, and how fabulous was his transformation of it into literature." --Richard Bernstein, New York Times
Peter Hopkirk has traveled widely over many years in the regions where his books are set--Central Asia, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. His nearly twenty years with The Times included work as an Asian affairs specialist. His previous books include The Great Game, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, Trespassers on the Roof of the World, Setting the East Ablaze, and Our Secret Service East of Constantinople. His works have been translated into twelve languages.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Hopkirk has traveled widely in the regions where his six books are set—Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India and Pakistan, Iran, and Eastern Turkey. He has worked as an ITN reporter, the New York correspondent of the old Daily Express, and—for 20 years—on the Times. No stranger to misadventure, he has twice been held in secret police cells and has also been hijacked by Arab terrorists. His works have been translated into 14 languages.

Review:

'This beautifully written and beguiling travel book will fascinate even those who have never read Kim' * Scotsman * 'A brilliant jigsaw' * Patrick Leigh Fermor, Spectator, Books of the Year *

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0472086340
• ISBN 13: 9780472086344
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Illustrator: Janina Slater