The Light That Failed - Softcover

Kipling, Rudyard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589630653 ISBN 13: 9781589630659

Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL), 2001

Synopsis

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was not yet 25 when he burst onto the literary scene in London, where his stories of Anglo-Indian life made him an instant celebrity. He won the Nobel Prize in 1907. Born in India in 1865 to an upper-class military family, he spent his early years in Britain and India and achieved his initial success as a reporter in India. In 1888 he published these short stories: "Soldiers Three," "The Story of the Gadsbys," "In Black and White," "Under the Deodars," "The Phantom Rickshaw" and "Wee Willie Winkie." "The Light that Failed" and "The City of Dreadful Night" were written by him in 1890.

He traveled widely and visited the U.S. a number of times, eventually building a house in Vermont. A restless wanderer, he ultimately settled in Sussex, only to have his world tumble into ruins with the death of his son in World War I.

Kipling is revered for his adult and children's stories and poems, but much of his life and writing is largely unknown in the United States. (Because he believed, and wrote, that Americans were ignorant provincials, his political views were not appreciated in the states.) Witty, profound, wildly funny, acerbic and occasionally savage, Rudyard Kipling's writings continue to delight readers of all ages.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If-" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". --Wikipedia

Review:

Novel by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1890. The book, which includes autobiographical elements, describes the youth and manhood of Dick Heldar and traces his efforts as a war correspondent and artist whose sketches of British battles in the Sudan become popular. When he returns to London, he begins painting his masterpiece, racing against time because a battle wound has caused his eyesight to progressively fail. Kipling wrote two separate endings to The Light That Failed, a happy ending for the version published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in January 1890 and an unhappy ending for the version published in book form a few months later. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About this edition

• Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL)
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1589630653
• ISBN 13: 9781589630659
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372