Kim is set in an imperialistic world; a world strikingly masculine, dominated by travel, trade and adventure, a world in which there is no question of the division between white and non-white. Two men - a boy who grows into early manhood and an old ascetic priest, the lama - are at the center of the novel. A quest faces them both. Born in India, Kim is nevertheless white, a sahib. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama. His aim, as he moves chameleon-like through the ...
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Kim is set in an imperialistic world; a world strikingly masculine, dominated by travel, trade and adventure, a world in which there is no question of the division between white and non-white. Two men - a boy who grows into early manhood and an old ascetic priest, the lama - are at the center of the novel. A quest faces them both. Born in India, Kim is nevertheless white, a sahib. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama. His aim, as he moves chameleon-like through the two cultures, is to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life. A celebration of their friendship in a beautiful but often hostile environment, 'Kim' captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj.
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I reread this book after a 40 to 50 year gap. I did so because I had had reason to speak with someone about Kim's Game.
Having reread I went though it again to fix some of the episodes in my mind.
Kipling himself says it has no plot. But the threads of the Great Game and a buddist lama's search for the River of the Arrow run through it. John Le Carre almost matches it in the thriller aspect
It includes some remarkable characters, a Sunni Horse dealer, a 'fearful" babu who aspires to Fellowship of The Royal Society, a british Colonel, Kim's father ( not stated but in real life the keeper of the Wonder House in Lahore0and of course Kim himself who we first encounter in Lahore as white but the poorest of the poor.
Set in NW India in I suppose about 1900 shortly after the Battle of Tirah( q.v.)
coldwater
May 13, 2010
Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
This is written so well, it confronts us with a new world - and it is nearly one hundred year old already! I decided to read more Rudyard Kipling!
Alexa Fleckenstein M.D., physician, author.
KathrynJane
May 7, 2010
"Kim" is a gem!
In "Kim", Mr. Kipling has created a timeless imp of a character who steals your heart while both he and the reader gain wisdom of the world. The vivid portrait of India and it's people could only have been captured and rendered for the ages by the matchless Mr. Kipling. Each page of this volume is a delight, packed with wit, suspense, wisdom and the opulence and poverty of India. It's a "life book" - you'll carry it's wit and wisdom with you and always know your life is enriched for having read it.
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