Helpful Score: 2
Kipling's classic story of a street boy in India, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier. Recognizing his genius and talents English officers train him for "The Great Game," spying for the Empire. Full of breath-taking adventure. Kipling knew his subject and this is a deep study into differences between East and West. It is also a study into spying and if you've read any spy stories whether from history, Caesar to George Washington to today, or novel you'll recognize the basic truths in this book.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a great adventure story and is also a great read if you are interested in Literature from the British Empire. A Classic!
Rudyard Kipling brings this tale of India very well. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, but that is just me.
A classic which I wanted to reread; every bit as enjoyable as the first time.
Let me just state that when I die, this is the book I will go live in.
My children really enjoyed this book.
A classic tale with a classic hero.
From Bibiomania: Kim is Rudyard Kiplings most enduringly successful serious novel. It was published in 1901 and is the story of the orphaned son of a soldier in the Irish regiment. His full name is Kimball OHara, but he is known, as the title suggests, as Kim. The novel takes place in India, then a British colony, and Kim spends his childhood as a waif in Lahore where he meets a Tibetan lama or holy man who is on a quest to find a mystical river. Kim joins him on his journey, but meets his fathers old regiment. He is adopted by them and is sent to a school although in his holidays he continues with his wandering. Partly as a result of his spirited lifestyle, Kim is selected by Colonel Creighton of the Ethnological Survey who notices his promise as a secret agent for the British. Under the instruction of the Indian, Hurree Babu, he becomes a distinguished member of the secret service, getting hold of the papers of some Russian spies in the Himalayas. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of Indian life, its religions and some of the humbler aspects of a land with a great population and associated problems. Some of Kiplings jingoism does show through in the latter stages of the novel, however, but this does not detract much from what is a highly successful study of life in India and of a boy who combines both Oriental and Irish and therefore East and West in his nature.
Kim, one of Kipling's masterpieces, is the story of Kimball O'Hara, the orphaned son of an officer in the Irish Regiment who spends his childhood as a vagabond in Lahore. The book is a carefully organized, powerful evocation of place and of a young man's quest for identity.
