Posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_(novel)
Laurie R. King published a novel, The Game, in 2004 wherein her characters (Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes and King's creation Mary Russell) are sent to India to rescue a now mature Kim, who in this story met Holmes in his youth. The book is set in 1924, and the story depends on the fact that Holmes travelled to Tibet shortly after his apparent demise at Reichenbach Falls in Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Final Problem".
In The English Patient, the character Kip, an Indian sapper in the British army who is a native of Lahore and knows personally many of the locations mentioned in the book including "The gun Zamzama", several times quotes Kim, which he considers as representing the colonialist occupiers of his city and his country.
PLOT
Kim is a picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. It is set after the Second Afghan War which ended in 1881, but before the Third, perhaps in the 1890s.
The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road." [1]
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Kim #78 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Plot summary
Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor white mother who have both died in poverty. Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. He occasionally works for Mahbub Ali, a horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service. Kim is so immersed in the local culture, few realise he is a white child, though he carries a packet of documents from his father entrusted to him by an Indian woman who cared for him.
Kim befriends an aged Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to free himself from the Wheel of Things by finding the legendary 'River of the Arrow'. Kim becomes his chela, or disciple, and accompanies him on his journey. On the way, Kim incidentally learns about parts of the Great Game and is recruited by a British officer to carry a message to the British commander in Umballa. Kim's trip with the Lama along the Grand Trunk Road is the first great adventure in the novel.
By chance, Kim's father's regimental chaplain identifies him by his Masonic certificate, which he wears around his neck and Kim is forcibly separated from the Lama. The Lama insists that Kim should comply with the chaplain's plan because he believes it is in Kim's best interests and the boy is sent to a top English school in Lucknow. The Lama funds Kim's education and Kim remains in contact with this Holy Man he has come to love throughout his years at school. Kim also retains contact with his secret service connections and is trained in espionage while on vacation from school by Lurgan Sahib, at his jewellery shop in Simla. As part of his training, Kim looks at a tray full of mixed objects and notes which have been added or taken away, a pastime still called Kim's Game, also called the Jewel Game.
After three years of schooling, Kim is given a government appointment so that he can begin his role in the Great Game. Before this appointment begins however, he is granted time to take a much-deserved break. Kim rejoins the Lama and at the behest of Kim's superior, Hurree Chunder Mookherjee, they make a trip to the Himalayas. Here the espionage and spiritual threads of the story collide, with the Lama unwittingly falling into conflict with Russian intelligence agents. Kim obtains maps, papers, and other important items from the Russians working to undermine British control of the region. Mookherjee befriends the Russians under cover, acting as a guide and ensures that they do not recover the lost items. Kim, aided by some porters and villagers, helps to rescue the Lama.
The Lama realizes that he has gone astray. His search for the 'River of the Arrow' should be taking place in the plains, not in the mountains, and he orders the porters to take them back. Here Kim and the Lama are nursed back to health after their arduous journey. Kim delivers the Russian documents to Hurree, and a concerned Mahbub Ali comes to check on Kim. The Lama finds his river and achieves Enlightenment. The reader is left to decide whether Kim will henceforth follow the prideful road of the Great Game, the spiritual way of Tibetan Buddhism, or a combination of the two. Kim himself has this to say: "I am not a Sahib. I am thy chela."
Characters
Kimball "Kim" O'Hara – is an orphan son of an Irish soldier, the protagonist; "A poor white, the poorest of the poor"
the Teshoo Lama – a Tibetan Lama: abbot of the Such-zen monastery in the western Himalayas, on a spiritual journey
Mahbub Ali – a famous Pashtun horse trader and spy for the British
Colonel Creighton – British Army officer, ethnologist and spy
Lurgan Sahib – a Simla gem trader and master spy
Hurree Chunder Mookherjee (Hurree Babu, also the Babu) – a Bengali intelligence operative working for the British; Kim's direct superior
the 'Kulu woman (the Sahiba)
the Woman of Shamlegh (Lispeth) who helps Kim and the Lama to evade the Russian spies and return to the plains
the old soldier – a native officer who had been loyal to the British during the Mutiny
Reverend Arthur Bennett – the Church of England chaplain of the Mavericks, the Irish regiment to which Kim's father belonged
Father Victor – the Roman Catholic chaplain of the Mavericks
a Lucknow prostitute whom Kim pays to help disguise him
a Kamboh farmer whose sick child Kim helps to cure
Huneefa – a sorceress who performs a devil invocation ritual to protect Kim
E.23 – a spy for the British whom Kim helps evade being captured
DRAMATIC REPRODUCTIONS OF THE NOVEL
An MGM film adaptation of the novel, directed by Victor Saville and produced by Leon Gordon, was released in 1950. It was adapted by Helen Deutsch and Leon Gordon, and starred Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas, Robert Douglas, Thomas Gomez and Cecil Kellaway. It featured a music score by André Previn.
Shirley Temple presented a one-hour adaptation of Kim in 1960, on her television series Shirley Temple's Storybook.
A London Films television film version Kim was made in 1984. It was directed by John Howard Davies and starred Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover and Ravi Sheth as Kim. It has been released on DVD.
References
^ "Kim". in: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online.
^ Roger Blackwell Bailey, Ph.D.. "Landmarks in the History of Children's Literature". http://www.accd.edu/Sac/english/bailey/childlit.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
^ Laura Laffrado. "Teaching American Children's Literature". Western Washington University. http://www.georgetown.edu/tamlit/newsletter/laffrado.html. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
^ Roger Sale, Fairy Tales and After: from Snow White to E.B. White" Harvard Univ. Press, 1978. p.221 ISBN 0-674-29157-3
^ Times Literary Supplement, Friday, 29th May,1959
^ Rudyard Kipling Kim Illustrated by Stuart Tresilian. Macmillan, 1959.
^ Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century, by Anthony Cave Brown, Little, Brown publishers, Boston 1994.
^ Original correspondence between Kipling and Maurice Hammoneau and his son Jean Hammoneau concerning the affair at the Library of Congress under the title: How "Kim" saved the life of a French soldier : a remarkable series of autograph letters of Rudyard Kipling, with the soldier's Croix de Guerre, 1918-1933. (LOC Ref#2007566938) [1]. The library also possesses the actual French 389-page paperback edition of Kim that saved Hammoneau's life, (LOC Ref 2007581430) [2]
Hopkirk, Peter (1996) Quest for Kim: in Search of Kipling's Great Game London: John Murray ISBN 0-7195-5560-4 — The author visits the locations of the novel and discusses the real-life personages that may have possibly inspired its characters
Kipling, Rudyard (2002) Kim; ed. by Zohreh T. Sullivan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-96650-X—This is the most extensive critical modern edition with footnotes, essays, maps, etc.
Benedetti, Amedeo (2007), Il Kim di Kipling. In: "LG Argomenti", Genova, Erga, a. XLIII (2007), n. 4, pp. 17–21.
Critical assessment
Considered by many to be Kipling's masterpiece, opinion appears varied about its consideration as children's literature or not.[2][3] Roger Sale, in his history of children's literature, concludes "Kim is the apotheosis of the Victorian cult of childhood, but it shines now as bright as ever, long after the Empire's collapse..."[4]
In a reissue of the novel in 1959 by Macmillan, the reviewer opines "Kim is a book worked at three levels. It is a tale of adventure...It is the drama of a boy having entirely his boy's own way... and it is the mystical exegesis of this pattern of behaviour..." This reviewer concludes "Kim will endure because it is a beginning like all masterly ends.."[5][6]
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Kim
Sources
Kim available at Internet Archive (scanned books, illustrated)
Kim at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
Kim, available at LibriVox (audio-book)
"Kim, by Rudyard Kipling", by Ian Mackean. Literary analysis.
Kerr, Douglas. "Kim". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002. Accessed 19 May 2008.
"Artist of empire: Kipling and Kim", The Hudson Review, Winter 2003 by Clara Clairborne Park.
Kim: Study Guide", from eNotes
"Kim", reviewed in The Atlantic, 1901.
"KIM."; Rudyard Kipling's Fascinating Story of India, reviewed in The New York Times, 1901.
No comments:
Post a Comment