John Howard Davies’s adaptation of Kim, which aired on television in 1984, was also shot on location in India. In this version, Kim is a street urchin living hand to mouth in Lahore. Ravi Sheth portrays Kim as streetwise teenager, but one who is ultimately kindhearted. Kim must weigh his two possible futures: one as the disciple of a wizened Buddhist monk, played impeccably by Peter O’Toole, and the other as a spy among horses, led by Mahbub Ali (Bryan Brown) . The drama ensues as the toughened Ali cannot seem to get along with the lama, who will not be ruffled, while Kim, searching for his true identity, learns that he is the son of a soldier who deserted from the British Maverick Regiment. Davies’s Kim, which also features John Rhys-Davies (of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Babu and Julian Glover as Colonel Creighton, is a thought-provoking portrait of 1890s India at the height of the British Raj.
Comments & Questions
In this section, we aim to provide the reader with an array of perspectives on the text, as well as questions that challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources as diverse as reviews contemporaneous with the work, letters written by the author, literary criticism of later generations, and appreciations written throughout the work’s history. Following the commentary, a series of questions seeks to filter Rudyard Kipling’s Kim through a variety of points of view and bring about a richer understanding of this enduring work.
COMMENTARY
ANDREW LANG
At last there comes an Englishman with eyes, with a pen extraordinarily deft, an observation marvellously rapid and keen; and, by good luck, this Englishman has no official duties: he is neither a soldier, nor a judge; he is merely a man of letters. He has leisure to look around him, he has the power of making us see what he sees; and, when we have lost India, when some new power is ruling where we ruled, when our empire has followed that of the Moguls, future generations will learn from Mr. Kipling’s works what India was under English sway.
—from Essays in Little (1891)
HENRY JAMES
I cannot overlook the general, the importunate fact that, confidently as [Kipling] has caught the trick and habit of this sophisticated world, he has not been long of it. His extreme youth is indeed what I may call his window-bar-the support on which he somewhat rowdily leans while he looks down at the human scene with his pipe in his teeth; just as his other conditions (to mention only some of them), are his prodigious facility, which is only less remarkable than his stiff selection; his unabashed temperament, his flexible talent, his smoking-room manner, his familiar friendship with India—established so rapidly, and so completely under his control; his delight in battle, his “cheek” about women—and indeed about men and about everything; his determination not to be duped, his “imperial” fibre, his love of the inside view, the private soldier and the primitive man.
—from his introduction to Kipling’s
Mine Own People ( 1891 )
NEW YORK TIMES
According to Mr. Howells “Kim” should be strictly forbidden to the public libraries. It is a book to be owned, not borrowed, to “linger over and delay, to return to again and yet again,” for it is one of the few novels of these latter days that have enriched both literature and life.
—September 28, 1901
THE NATION
‘Kim’ is neither a novel nor a romance, but an imaginative tale of a kind long known and perpetually interesting. Its literary lineage has been clearly traced from the “boy and beggar” tales and plays of the fifteenth century, down through the Spanish picaresque (rogue) tales of the sixteenth, Le Sage’s ‘Gil Bias,‘ and a distinguished English ancestry, including the early Elizabethans, taking on a definite national expression in Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe.’ However widely these tales vary in scene, time, and treatment, they are essentially alike. They are tales of adventure on the high-road, the sea, at home, or in a foreign land, and the hero is a youthful vagabond, sometimes accompanied by an aged master or friend, and sometimes wandering alone in quest of fame, or fortune, always a vagrant born. It is to the vagrant instinct, never extinguished by civilization, that the tale of the rogue and the road for ever appeals, always recognized as old and always as good as new. All these tales, from the earliest to the latest, are realistic, for they rely on exact observation and report of actual events, and on literal description of the manners and appearance of the people encountered by the way; they avoid extravagance and exaggeration, and they closely reflect human nature—unfortunately its evil side more often than its good. Great frankness, even license, of speech is conspicuous in this vagabond literature.
‘Kim’ is a perfect example of vagabond literature, with the old tricks almost magically transformed by a master modern hand, with the old crude, hard, superficial views of humanity wonderfully softened and liberalized, yet never sentimentalized, and all performed with the subtlety and mysticism of the Orient.
—November 14, 1901
ATLANTIC MONTHLY
There is a fine antidote to all manner of morbidness in the brilliant pages of Kim. Mr. Kipling’s last work is ... his best, and not easily comparable with the work of any other man; for it is of its own kind and of a novel kind, and fairly amazes one by the proof it affords of the author’s magnificent versatility.
—December 1901
DYLAN THOMAS
Mr. Kipling ... stands for everything in this cankered world which I would wish were otherwise.
—from a letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson
(December 25, 1933)
QUESTIONS
1.One critic observes that “it is to the vagrant instinct, never extinguished by civilization, that the tale of the rogue and the road for ever appeals, always recognized as old and always as good as new.” What is this “vagrant instinct”? Is it a kind of playing hooky from responsibility and respectability? Do you agree that an imaginative indulgence in this “instinct” is what Kim appeals to?
2.Whether or not you have any knowledge of India, does Kim feel realistic to you? How does Kipling achieve the effect of realism? Or why does he fail?
3.Does Kipling look down on the Indians? Does it ever feel as though Kipling was slumming and inviting the reader to do the same?
4.How do you feel about Kim’s becoming a spy?
5.Would the novel work as well if Kim were, say, twenty years old? Is the absence of adult concerns such as sex, love, and romance crucial?
For Further Reading
Amis, Kingsley. Rudyard Kipling and His World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. Perceptive introduction, with many good photographs.
Auden, W. H. “The Poet of the Encirclement (Rudyard Kipling).” 1943. In Literary Opinion in America, edited by Morton Dauwen Zabel. Third edition, revised. New York: Harper and Row, 1962, pp. 259-264. From this review of T. S. Eliot’s edition of Kipling’s verse: “His early experiences of India gave him a sense of the danger of Nature which it is hard for a European to realize.”
Bayley, John. “The Puzzles of Kipling.” The Uses of Division: Unity and Disharmony in Literature. New York: Viking, 1976, pp. 51-81. “The India of Kim ... is like a vast and well-equipped nursery full of benevolent mothers and fathers, who are all regarded as belonging to the gang.”
Chaudhuri, Nirad. “The Finest Story about India—in English [Kim].” In The Age of Kipling : The Man, His Work, and His World, edited by John Gross. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972, pp. 28-35. “It is the product of Kipling’s vision of a much bigger India, a vision whose profundity we Indians would be hard put to it to match even in an Indian language.”
Eliot, T. S. “Rudyard Kipling.” In A Choice of Kipling’s Verse. 1941. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1962, pp. 7-40. Kipling has “an immense gift for using words, an amazing curiosity and power of observation with his mind and with all his senses, the mask of the entertainer, and beyond that a queer gift of second sight.”
Gilbert, Elliott, ed. Kipling and the Critics. New York: New York University Press, 1965. Valuable collection o
f essays by Henry James, Bonamy Dobrée, Boris Ford, George Orwell, Lionel Trilling, C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, J. M. S. Tompkins, Randall Jarrell, and others.
Gilmour, David. The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Chronicles “Kipling’s political life, his early role as apostle of the Empire, the embodiment of imperial aspiration, and his later one as the prophet of national decline.”
Graves, Robert. “Rudyard Kipling.” 1928. In The Common Asphodel: Collected Essays on Poetry, 1922-1949. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949, pp. 213-223. An appreciative early survey of Kipling’s works. “He is ordinary-minded though emotionally eccentric, the subject for mass admiration, and no more to be argued away than the design of a postage stamp.”
Hopkirk, Peter. The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. London: John Murray, 1990. Thorough account of historical background.
Howe, Irving. Introduction to The Portable Kipling. New York: Penguin, 1982, pp. ix-xxxix; pp. xix-xxiii on Kim. Sensitive and penetrating reading of Kipling’s work. “Part of the pleasure that Kim engages is that of accepting, even venerating sainthood, without at all proposing to surrender the world, or even worldliness, to saints.”
Jarrell, Randall. Kipling, Auden & Co.: Essays and Reviews, 1935-1964. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980, pp. 332-364. Argues that Kipling “was a great genius; and a great neurotic; and a great professional, one of the most skillful writers who have ever existed.”
Maugham, W. Somerset. Introduction to A Choice of Kipling’s Prose. London: Macmillan, 1952, pp. v-xxvii. “He is our greatest story writer. I can’t believe he will ever be equaled. I am sure he can never be excelled.”
Meyers, Jeffrey. Introduction to The Best Short Stories of Rudyard Kipling. New York: Signet, 1987, pp. vii-xvi. “Kipling’s two great themes are the need to defend civilization against brute nature and barbarian people, and the stoic self-sacrifice of the English officials responsible for completing the day’s work.”
Orwell, George. “Rudyard Kipling.” 1942. In A Collection of Essays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954, pp. 123- 139. Kipling’s power as a good-bad poet comes from “his sense of responsibility, which made it possible for him to have a world-view, even though it happened to be a false one.”
Parry, Benita. Delusions and Discoveries: Studies on India in the British Imagination, 1880-1930. London: Allen Lane, 1972, pp. 242-255 on Kim. Explores the religious significance of the novel.
Rutherford, Andrew, ed. Kipling’s Mind and Art. Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1964, pp. 216-234 on Kim. Excellent collection of essays by W. L. Renwick, Edmund Wilson, George Orwell, Lionel Trilling, Noel Annan, Alan Sandison, W. W. Rob-son, and others.
Sullivan, Zohreh, ed. Kim: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. Contains stories, poems, letters, and autobiography by Kipling; three contemporary reviews; two historical essays; and thirteen literary articles by Noel Annan, Irving Howe, Edward Said, and others. The more recent essays are politically correct and tediously negative.
Tompkins, J. M. S. The Art of Rudyard Kipling. London: Methuen, 1959, pp. 21-32. Good analysis of Kipling’s characters and style, and comparison of Kim and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Trilling, Lionel. “Kipling.”1943. In The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1953, pp. 114-124. “The dominant emotions of Kim are love and respect for the aspects of Indian life that the ethos of the West does not usually regard even with leniency.”
Wilson, Angus. The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Works. 1977. London and New York: Penguin, 1979, pp. 128-133 on Kim: “The story of Kim and the Lama is ... an allegory of that seldom portrayed ideal, the world in the service of spiritual goodness.”
Wilson, Edmund. “The Kipling That Nobody Read.” In The Wound and the Bow: Seven Studies in Literature. 1941. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965, pp. 86-147. Brilliant essay on the relationship of Kipling’s childhood trauma to his art, emphasizing the late stories and “the heroism of moral fortitude on the edge of a nervous collapse.”
Yule, Henry, and A. C. Burnell. Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary. 1886. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1996. A valuable, learned source for many linguistic and cultural references.
1 Narrow Way: reference to the Bible, Matthew 7:14: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way” (King James Version, henceforth KJV); Tophet: that is, Topheth; shrine where human sacrifices were offered (2 Kings 23:10); Kamakura: town near Yokohama, Japan, site of a huge thirteenth-century bronze image of Buddha.
2 Huge cannon; its Persian name means “capturer of strongholds.”
3 Capital of Punjab, a province of northwestern British India (now Pakistan).
4 Support for cannon in carriages.
5 Sind: province in northwestern British India, of which Karachi (now Pakistan) is capital; Delhi: capital of the Indian Empire (1912-1947); Ferozepore: city 45 miles southeast of Lahore.
6 Let it never change (Latin); inscribed on Freemason’s certificate of enrollment.
7 Given to a member of the Masonic Lodge before he transfers elsewhere.
8 Meeting place of Freemasons, secret order dedicated to mutual assistance of members.
9 Reference to the Bible, Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (KJV).
10 Eighth-century caliph of Baghdad and legendary hero of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
11 The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, a collection of ancient Oriental stories told by Scheherezade, the wife of a Persian king, to keep him from executing her.
12 Muslim or Hindu religious ascetics or mendicant monks. ∥ln the East, people give food to holy men who wander through towns with their begging bowls.
13 That is, balks; heavy timber used for building.
14 The Ravi River runs through Lahore.
15 As a sign of respect, Indians would leave their shoes outside public buildings.
16 To keep down dust in the dry season.
17 Based on Kipling’s father, who was curator of the Lahore Museum and illustrated the New York edition of Kim.
18 That is, ghee; butter from cow’s or buffalo’s milk, purified or clarified by boiling.
19 Sagebrush-like plant.
20 Main language of Muslims in northern India.
21 Kulu: a Himalayan town between Simla and Kashmir; Kailas: a group of 22,000-foot peaks, sacred to Hindus.
22 Household idol.
23 Path between extremes, leading to enlightenment: freedom from the pain of the external world.
24 Lumbini: Buddha’s birthplace in Rajasthan; Buddh Gaya: where he experienced enlightenment; Sarnath: site of his first teaching; Kushingar: where he died.
25 Ghosts or demons.
26 Alexander the Great’s conquest of western India in 326 B.C. brought Hellenistic style to Buddhist sculpture.
27 Stupas: dome-shaped monuments to Buddha; viharas: Buddhist temples.
28 Meditative cross-legged posture of Buddha seated on a lotus flower.
29 That is, devas; gods in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
30 Person who has attained enlightenment but has postponed Nirvana to help others achieve it.
31 Buddha.
32 Maya: Buddha’s mother; Ananda: a favorite fifth-century disciple of Buddha.
33 Site, possibly imaginary, of lama’s monastery in Tibet.
34 Signs forecasting the birth of Buddha.
35 The next several lines note major events in the life of Buddha.
36 Reference to the Bible, Luke 2:25-35, which tells of Simeon presenting the infant Jesus in Temple of Jerusalem and foretelling his persecution.
37 Samuel Beal (1825-1889), scholar and translator of Chinese.
38 Probably Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales (Memoirs of Western Countries), by Hsuan-tsang (605?-664), translated by Stanislas Julien (1797-1873), in the Travels of Buddhi
st Pilgrims series, 2 vols. Paris, 1857-1858.
39 Where Buddha spent his early life.
40 China.
41 Temple in Buddh Gaya, a holy site southeast of Benares where Buddha experienced enlightenment under the sacred Bo Tree.
42 Bondage of earthly passions and cycles of birth and death.
43 Also known as Varanasi; holy city on the Ganges River, in northeastern India.
44 Member of an ascetic religion founded in the sixth century B.C. to reform Hinduism.
45 Town in the foothills of the Himalayas, on the border of Kashmir.
46 Variant of the Hindu goddess Padma, who emanated from a lotus.
47 Hinduism has many gods.
48 That is, Shiva, the destroyer; the third member, with Brahma and Vishnu, of the Hindu trinity.
49 Cows, sacred to Hindus, wander freely in streets and temples.
50 Stray dogs that live on garbage.
51 Indian shrubs.
52 0ne of Allah’s names.