***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star
The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling
Woodsworth Edition
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/General Fiction
****
DESCRIPTION: This is a reprint of Kipling's classic tales of the Indian jungle. Included are:
The Jungle Book: The boy Mowgli is raised in the Indian jungle by wolves, the black panther Bhageera, and the bear Baloo, after the great tiger Shere Khan kills
his father.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: A mongoose protects a British family from deadly cobras.
The White Seal: A seal tries to save his fellows from hunters.
Toomai of the Elephants: A young boy witnesses a never-before-seen marvel of elephant culture.
Her Majesty's Servants: A man overhears the animals of the British army discussing their jobs.
REVIEW: This is another book I'd always thought I should read but never got around to until now. The dialog is a bit thick with "thee"'s and "thy"'s, but beyond that
it's a fairly good book. Mowgli's tale and Rikki-Tikki were the best, followed by The White Seal. I didn't find much of a point to Toomai, and the last tale seemed
disjointed and over-talky. Admittedly, some of this is the result of me being a modern person looking back at the views and practices of another time. For instance, catching
and beating wild elephants (in Toomai and the Elephants) doesn't strike me as a particularly noble occupation, but I'm looking at it during a time when both elephants
and the Indian ecology teeter on the edge of extinction. No doubt Kipling's era saw an endless wildland begging to be tamed. On the whole, however, Kipling's stories
are well-paced and memorable, which is more than I can say of a few "classics" I've read. I found it odd how Kipling seems to write with a sort of reverence for the Indian
subcontinent's wildlife in some stories, then glorifies its destruction and English rule in others. A different idea of "reverence," I suppose, from another era.
You might also enjoy:
The Alexander Cold trilogy (Isabel Allende, YA Fiction - An American teen discovers danger and mysticism in the remote corners of the world)
Heart of a Tiger (Marsha Diane Arnold, YA Picture Book - In India, a shy gray kitten wants a tiger's name)
The Sword and the Cross (Fergus Fleming, Nonfiction - Nineteeth-century Europeans attempt to "tame" the Sahara)
King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard, Fiction - Three Englishmen seek legendary diamonds in the heart of colonial Africa)
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - Far from her distant homeland, a girl finds herself immersed in a strange land, a strange culture, and a stranger magic)
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
(1994 movie DVD - An underrated version of Kipling's classic story)
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The Second Jungle Book
(Sequel to The Jungle Book)
Rudyard Kipling
Public Domain Books
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/General Fiction
**+
DESCRIPTION: After Mowgli defeated the tiger Shere-Khan and fled the cruel and superstitious Man-village, he thought he could return to his old life, as a child of
the Seeonee wolf pack, hunt-brother of the panther Bagheera, and pupil of the bear Baloo. But the mark of Man is upon him, a poison in his blood, and even as he rises to
Master of the Jungle, his birthright calls to him. Mowgli's further adventures are interspersed with tales of Jungle lore and other short stories.
REVIEW: To be honest, a good half a star was lost to the Public Domain version I found online; inexplicably, it cut out some of Kipling's work, most notably the songs
and Jungle law, with unhelpful bracketed summaries of the prose I'd hoped to read left in their stead. Unfortunately, the other two stars were lost honestly. While lush with
intricate descriptions and imaginative lore, the stories themselves drag and meander, mostly so Kipling could cram in yet more descriptions and lore. I also found Mowgli to
be a clueless, selfish little twerp more often than not; why Bagheera, Kaa, and the rest put up with him for so long without gutting him, I cannot fathom. Once again, Kipling's
works display a strange duality of nature, being both a literate love song for the wonders of the wilderness and a not-so-subtle praise of the English domination and destruction
of said wilderness. In his time, perhaps, the two somehow melded into a unified vision, but from my 21st-century American standpoint I can't see how. In any event, this sequel
hardly seems necessary.
You might also enjoy:
The Alexander Cold trilogy (Isabel Allende, YA Fiction - An American teen discovers danger and mysticism in the remote corners of the world)
Heart of a Tiger (Marsha Diane Arnold, YA Picture Book - In India, a shy gray kitten wants a tiger's name)
The Sword and the Cross (Fergus Fleming, Nonfiction - Nineteeth-century Europeans attempt to "tame" the Sahara)
King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard, Fiction - Three Englishmen seek legendary diamonds in the heart of colonial Africa)
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - Far from her distant homeland, a girl finds herself immersed in a strange land, a strange culture, and a stranger magic)
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
(1994 movie DVD - An underrated version of Kipling's classic story)
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