Indian Tales

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

4.0

Word count: 920K words
Chapters: 93

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.Indian Tales by Rudyard KiplingAuthor: Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 2005

Editor's review

Indian Tales is a collection of Kipling's short stories, and the Project Gutenberg public-domain edition brings the work back within reach of general readers. Kipling's narrative strength lies in a strong sense of scene and a colloquial rhythm: he knew British India's social strata, barrack life and street talk, and could render the speech of characters from different classes vividly. The book's appeal is the flexibility of the short-story form; individual pieces are short, suited to reading in spare moments, and make it easy to observe how the author builds conflict and atmosphere within a limited space. A caveat: the work bears clear marks of its era, with ethnic descriptions and value judgments shaped by the colonial context, and today's readers should keep a historicized eye, appreciating the narrative craft while discerning its limits. Overall, it serves as an introductory sampler of Kipling's short fiction and his writing on British India, not a substitute for his best-known longer works.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers seeking a first look at Kipling's short-story style
Readers interested in British Indian society and cultural life
English readers who like short pieces and reading in segments
Students and enthusiasts of colonial-era English literature

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting full-length plots and complex structure
Readers sensitive to colonial-era ethnic descriptions and unwilling to examine context
Beginners with weak English needing line-by-line annotation
Readers hoping for Kipling's most representative works

Reading tips

Read story by story, pausing after each to note narrative perspective and character voice.
Read two or three stories with the same setting side by side to observe how the author handles characters of different classes.
Mark expressions reflecting period prejudice as you read, then do a focused contextual analysis afterward.
Start with shorter, tightly plotted pieces to build fluency, then move on to longer stories.

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 suitable for English learners?

Upper-intermediate learners with some foundation can try it, but Kipling often uses colloquial dialogue, dialect coloring and period vocabulary that can stump beginners. Start with the shorter stories; when blocked, read through for plot first, then look up meanings.

Are the stories connected?

As a short-story collection, the pieces are largely independent and can be read in any order. Some share the British Indian setting and character types, and reading them together reveals the author's recurring subjects and narrative patterns.

Do I need to know colonial history to read it?

Some basic background helps. The work emerged from the British Indian context, and its character relations and value judgments carry period marks; historical awareness helps readers appreciate the narrative craft while recognizing its prejudices and limits.

What is the reading experience of the electronic edition like?

The Gutenberg edition is a plain-text ebook, convenient for searching and excerpting but usually lacking notes and introduction. Use pen and paper or a note-taking app to record characters and story points, filling the gaps left by the absence of annotation.

Comments

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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.