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Though he was burned black as any native; though he spoke the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain sing-song; though he consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazar; Kim was white--a poor white of the very poorest.From his father and the woman who raised him, Kim has come to believe that a great destiny awaits him. The details, however, are a bit fuzzy, consisting as they do of the woman's addled prophecies of "'a great Red Bull on a green field, and the Colonel riding on his tall horse, yes, and'--dropping into English--'nine hundred devils.'"
In the meantime, Kim amuses himself with intrigues, executing "commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion." His peculiar heritage as a white child gone native, combined with his "love of the game for its own sake," makes him uniquely suited for a bigger game. And when, at last, the long-awaited colonel comes along, Kim is recruited as a spy in Britain's struggle to maintain its colonial grip on India. Kipling was, first and foremost, a man of his time; born and raised in India in the 19th century, he was a fervid supporter of the Raj. Nevertheless, his portrait of India and its people is remarkably sympathetic. Yes, there is the stereotypical Westernized Indian Babu Huree Chander with his atrocious English, but there is also Kim's friend and mentor, the Afghani horse trader Mahub Ali, and the gentle Tibetan lama with whom Kim travels along the Grand Trunk Road. The humanity of his characters consistently belies Kipling's private prejudices, and raises Kim above the mere ripping good yarn to the level of a timeless classic. --Alix Wilber
How Kim and the lama meet their respective destinies on the road and in the mountains of India forms one of the most compelling adventure tales of all time.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeFilled with lyrical, exotic prose and nostalgia for Rudyard Kipling's native India, Kim is widely acknowledged as the author's greatest novel and a key element in his winning the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the tale of an orphaned sahib and the burdensome fate that awaits him when he is unwittingly dragged into the Great Game of Imperialism. During his many adventures, he befriends a sage old Tibetan lama who transforms his life. As Pankaj Mishra asserts in his Introduction, "To read the novel now is to notice the melancholy wisdom that accompanies the native boy's journey through a broad and open road to the narrow duties of the white man's world- how the deeper Buddhist idea of the illusion of the self, of time and space, makes bearable for him the anguish of abandoning his childhood." This novel tells the story of Kimball O'Hara (Kim), who is the orphaned son of a soldier in the Irish regiment stationed in India during the British Raj. It describes Kim's life and adventures from street vagabond, to his adoption by his father's regiment and recruitment into espionage. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780812971347
Book Description Condition: New. pp. xvii + 306, Map. Seller Inventory # 26956742
Book Description Condition: New. pp. xvii + 306 Map. Seller Inventory # 7939737
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Book Description Condition: New. Series: Modern Library. Num Pages: 336 pages. BIC Classification: FC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 203 x 136 x 18. Weight in Grams: 246. . 2004. New ed. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780812971347
Book Description Condition: New. Series: Modern Library. Num Pages: 336 pages. BIC Classification: FC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 203 x 136 x 18. Weight in Grams: 246. . 2004. New ed. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780812971347