Abaft the Funnel cover

Abaft the Funnel

Rating 3.7
Word count
341K words
Chapters
35

Tags

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.Abaft the Funnel by Rudyard KiplingAuthor: Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 22, 2019

Editor's review

Abaft the Funnel is a collection of short works by Kipling. The title comes from nautical usage, and the whole book has a distinct atmosphere of the sea and sailors' life. Kipling's narrative pace is brisk, his dialogue vivid, and he excels at sketching character and maritime scenes in just a few strokes; readers can sense the maritime culture and the everyday life of ordinary sailors against the backdrop of the late nineteenth-century British Empire. The pieces are short, suitable for fragmented reading and as an introduction to Kipling's short-story style. Note that some of the language and perspectives carry obvious marks of their era, and today's readers may find certain expressions alien; read them in their historical context. The English original poses some challenge for non-native readers, but the stories are strong, and perseverance will be rewarded.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Literary readers who enjoy maritime themes and sea stories
  • Readers who want an initial taste of Kipling's short-story style
  • Learners with good English who are willing to read classic short stories

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer long, continuous narratives and are unaccustomed to short-story collections
  • Readers sensitive to nineteenth-century colonial-context expressions
  • Beginners with weak English who want light reading

Reading tips

  1. Read each piece independently, pausing briefly after each to savour the characters and scenes.
  2. Pay attention to nautical terms and slang, and use notes or background materials to understand them.
  3. Read the works against the late nineteenth-century context, distinguishing literary value from the limitations of the era.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short-story collection?
It is a collection of short works. The pieces are relatively independent, suitable for reading in installments; you need not read from beginning to end in order.
Can I understand it without nautical knowledge?
Yes. The core of the stories is still character and plot; nautical terminology does not affect comprehension of the main thread. Skip or look up unfamiliar words as needed.
What should I keep in mind when reading Kipling?
Kipling's works bear the marks of their time, and some expressions are controversial today. It is advisable to appreciate the narrative skill while maintaining a historicized reading perspective.

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About the 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.

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