Under the Deodars

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

3.4

Word count: 236K words
Chapters: 24

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.Under the Deodars by Rudyard KiplingAuthor: Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 2001

Editor's review

Under the Deodars is an early collection of short stories by Kipling set in India. The stories mostly revolve around colonial social circles, marriage, and human weaknesses, told in a calm, slightly ironic tone. Kipling lived in India and worked in newspapers for many years, and he observed local society closely. The dialogue is vivid and the scenes shift briskly, sketching characters' vanity, calculation, and occasional kindness within a short space. As a public-domain electronic text, it is better suited as an introduction to Kipling's short-story style and the subject of British India in literature than as his most famous representative work. Reading it, one can feel the narrative rhythm of late nineteenth-century English short stories and glimpse gender and class relations in colonial society through the stories. It suits segmented reading on commutes or before bed; afterward, one might compare it with Kipling's other Indian-themed works to see how his perspective continues and changes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Kipling's works and the subject of British India
Readers who want to understand the narrative style of late nineteenth-century English short stories
People who need short stories for fragmented reading time and prefer story-driven texts
Students or enthusiasts studying colonial literature and depictions of social customs

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting Kipling's most famous representative work or a complete full-length novel
Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced plots and strong twists
People with little interest in colonial-era context and old-fashioned social descriptions

Reading tips

Read story by story, noting character relationships and the target of the irony after each one; there is no need to finish it all at once.
While reading, pay attention to the narrator's detached observation of colonial social circles and appreciate the ironic tone.
Read it alongside Kipling's other Indian-themed short stories and observe the repetition and variation in his subjects and perspective.
When encountering unfamiliar place names or old-fashioned forms of address, skip them first and look back after finishing, so as not to interrupt the story's rhythm.

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

Is this book a novel or a short-story collection?

The materials indicate it is a collection of Kipling's short stories, centered on social and human stories set in India, not a full-length novel. Each story can be understood independently while reading; there is no need to force a continuous plot.

Can readers with average English read it?

The text is a public-domain English ebook. It is short but contains old-fashioned expressions and colonial terms. Readers with average English can read it in segments with a dictionary, first grasping characters and plot, then returning to vocabulary and background details.

Is it suitable for understanding Kipling?

It can serve as supplementary material for understanding Kipling's short-story style and Indian subjects, but it should not be treated as his most core representative work. It is advisable to read it together with his better-known works for a more complete impression.

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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.