The Years Between

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 82K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Years Between by Rudyard KiplingAuthor: Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 8, 2007

Editor's review

The Years Between is a work by Kipling, available as a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg and classified under English literature. Judging from the title and the stage of Kipling's career, it carries the reflective quality common to his later middle-period work and suits readers who have already read some of his writing and wish to trace how his style evolved. The original text is in English and demands a reasonable command of the language, especially attention to its allusions, place names, and period background. As a public-domain electronic text, it lacks the detailed notes found in modern annotated editions, so readers may need to fill in context from Kipling's life and times. Overall it is not the best first taste of Kipling but works better as extended reading, offering a view of his concerns and modes of expression in a particular period. Reading it piece by piece, as individual poems or short sequences, and looking up relevant background afterward is recommended, to appreciate the feeling and period imprint behind the text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Kipling before and want to explore his work further
Readers with good English reading ability and an interest in English literature
Close readers who enjoy poetry and short pieces and are willing to look up background
Students of English literature who need a public-domain text for reference

Not a good fit for

Readers with weak English who need a Chinese translation or detailed notes
Readers new to Kipling who want to start with his best-known works
Readers who prefer tightly plotted novels and have little patience for poetry and short pieces

Reading tips

Learn about Kipling's life and the stages of his career first; the text will read more smoothly.
Read in sections by poem or sequence, looking up allusions and place names after each.
Keep a notebook of recurring images and themes to grasp the whole more easily.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this without having read any other Kipling?

You can, but it is not an ideal entry point. The book works better after you have read some of Kipling's representative works, which makes his language habits and recurring themes easier to follow. If this is your first encounter, start with his better-known works and then come back to this one.

Is this book poetry or prose? How difficult is it?

It is an English literary work containing poetry and short pieces, written in a condensed style with period background, and is moderately to considerably difficult. A good command of English reading, along with dictionaries and background materials, is recommended.

The public-domain ebook has no notes. How can I fill in the background?

Start with a chronology of Kipling's life and an overview of his career stages, then search separately for the place names and allusions that appear in the text. After reading, consult chapters on the author in literary histories to place the text in its period context.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936 Author

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was a British writer, and this library holds sixty-five of his works. Publicly available material on his life is limited, so the following introduction focuses on his writings. He is known chiefly for fiction and fairy tales, often dealing with animals, the jungle, exotic adventure and youthful growth. His language is vivid, his narrative pace brisk, and his stories combine imagination with moral meaning. The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, set in the Indian jungle, tell of the boy Mowgli among the animals and have been widely read; Just So Stories explains in a light manner how animals came by their features; Kim portrays growth and the search for identity in an Indian setting; Puck of Pook's Hill draws on history and legend to tell of England's past; and The Man Who Would Be King displays adventure and ambition. His works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age reading and have had a lasting influence on children's literature and English-language readers.