Books : Plain Tales from the Hills (Penguin Classics)
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by: Rudyard Kipling
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780140183122
ISBN: 0140183124
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: December 30, 1991
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Sales Rank: 1134118
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
First published in 1888, Plain Tales from the Hills was Kipling's first volume of prose fiction. His vignettes of life in British India give vivid insights into Anglo-India at work and play, and into the character of the Indians themselves. Witty, wry, sometimes cynical, these tales with their brevity and concentration of effect are landmarks in the history of the short story as an art-form.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Great stories, decent edition
The stories are wonderful. I've read a decent amount of Kipling and am always pleased to find more of them. This particular collection contains a bunch of really charming tales that range from funny through tragic. These types of short stories remind me why I love Kipling so much. As with all Kipling, it's worth noting that he was a product of his time and some of his writing could be considered offensive to the modern reader.
This particular Kindle version is quite good with proper ... Read More
Rating: - Nostalgia for 60 year olds
I bought this book to recall the halcyon days of my secondary schooling in the years 1957 - 61. Then the book was an assigned text for all students in English in New Zealand. The language and the concepts were then frankly beyond the comprehension of 15 year olds. As I grew older, I became aware of the position Kipling held in the Late Victorian era, and the period following the end of the First World War.
I came to understand a little of what the British Empire meant in those times, and ... Read More
Rating:  - handle with care
A fine collection of extremely well-crafted stories.
But these pages are crammed with racism, with remarks on the worthlessness of a native indian's life, their stupidity and their weakness.
One of the stories starts with "we are a high-caste and enlightened race", any man who shows interest in the ways of life of the natives is ridiculed over pages and the only remark on the death of a native child is: "They have no stamina, these brats."
Well written, but disgusting.
Rating:  - Yesterday�s Fad, Today�s Flat Beer
I believe Kipling was wildly popular in his day. This collection of stories about English life in India may have entranced the masses and sold a lot of newspapers in the first decade of the 20th century, but in the context of almost exactly a hundred years later, they have lost most of their shine. While Kipling might have been the foremost raconteur of British India, compared to great short story writers like Chekhov, de Maupassant, or Twain, he comes across today as coy and contrived. Certain phrases ... Read More
Rating:  - One of the finest collections of short stories in english.
Rudyard Kipling writes concisely and with great insight on a wide range of issues. With each story only taking up a few pages the depth of characterisation is superb. 'The gate of one-hundred sorrows' is one of the finest short stories ever written.
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