Collected Stories

This selection covers the full range of Kipling''s extraordinary short stories throughout his career. Ranging in subject matter from the Indain to the Occult, from children to animals, from domestic comedy to public tragedy, each is masterly in its way. Above all, they convey a wonderful sense of life and energy and reveal Kipling as a far greater and more diverse writer than most people suspect. This is an ideal gift-book, perfect for reading in short snatches or long stretches, according to taste.

Everything about Kipling is extreme--the abundance of his talent, his precocity, his early fame and success, the variety of literary forms he mastered, the passionate admiration and loathing he evoked in critics and readers, the contradictions within him, the contradictions in the way he has been perceived, both during his life and after his death.