Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936), was a leading English short story writer, poet, and novelist. He is best known for his stories about India during the late 1800's, when India was a British colony. Kipling wrote more than 300 short stories, which illustrate a wide variety of narrative techniques. He also wrote children's stories that became popular worldwide. In 1907, Kipling was the first En­glish writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.

Childhood. Joseph Rudyard Kipling was bom in Bombay, In­dia, on Dec. 30, 1865. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, had come to Bombay after being appointed to a teaching post at a Bombay school of art. Indian servants took care of Rudyard and taught him the Hindi language of India.

When Kipling was 5 years old, his parents brought him to Southsea, England, near Portsmouth. It was the custom of English parents living in India to remove their children from the heat and deadly diseases of the colony by sending their children to school in England. In Southsea, Kipling was boarded with paid foster par­ents. He felt he had been deserted during his five unhappy years there. Kipling later recalled this period in a bitter short story, «Baa, Baa, Black Sheep» (1888).

At the age of 12, Kipling was enrolled at the United Services College, a school established to educate inexpensively the sons of

Army officers. Kipling, an eager reader, was made editor of the school journal. He developed several lifelong friendships at the school «Stalky & Co» (1899), a collection of interrelated short sto­ries, is a fictional record of his life there. The stories emphasize adolescent brutality and practical joking, but they constitute a lively record of life in an English public school.

Young journalist. Limited family finances prevented Kipling from going to a university. In 1882, he returned to India instead and joined the staff of the «Civil and Military Gazette», a newspaper in the northwestern city of Lahore. He learned much about life in the region by reporting on local events. By 1886, his feature articles and stories had attracted a wide readership. The newspaper also printed some of his poems, later collected in «Departmental Dit­ties» (1886) and considerably enlarged in later editions.

In 1887, Kipling joined the staff of the «Pioneer», a newspaper in Allahabad. He wrote articles based on his travels in northern India. Many were later collected in «From Sea to Sea» (1899).

Early literary success. Kipling's first book of fiction, «Plain Talcs from the Hills» (1888), consists of 40 stories, 32 of them originally written for the «Civil and Military Gazette». Stories writ­ten for the «Pioneer» soon were collected in six paperback books in the Indian Railway Library series. These books, sold in railroad stations, were popular with travelers and spread Kipling's fame outside India.

Kipling returned to England in 1889. His Indian Railway Li­brary stories were reprinted in the collections «Soldiers Three» and «Wee Willie Winkie» in 1890. Kipling's first novel, «The Light That Failed» was also published in 1890. The novel about an artist going blind received mixed reviews, but Kipling by this time was the most talked about writer in both England and the United Suites. «Life's Handicap» (1891), another collection of short stories, in­cludes «Without Benefit of Clergy», a powerful study of a doomed love affair between an Englishman and a young Indian woman.

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Kipling's popularity grew tremendously with his «Barrack-Room Ballads», which were published individually in periodicals in the early 1890's and collected in book form in 1892. Many of the «Ballads» are written in the Cockney dialect. They include such famous poems as «Danny Dcever», «Fuzzy Wuzzy», «Gunga Din», and «Mandalay».

Kipling in Amcrica. Soon after his return to England, Kipling bccamc friends with the American literary agent Wolcott Balestier. Shortly before his death in 1891, Balestier collaborated on Kipling's second novel, «The Naulakha» (1892). In January 1892, Kipling married Balestier's sister, Carrie, in London.

The Kiplings moved to Brattleboro, Vt„ in the summer of 1892. They lived there in a rented cottage for one year. This was a pe­riod of hard work for Kipling. He published «Many Inventions»

(1893), a collection that includes the fine tale about a sea mon­ster, «А Matter of Fact». Kipling also wrote «The Jungle Book»

(1894), and «The Second Jungle Book» (1895), children's stories that gained a wide international audience. «The Jungle Books» describe the adventures of Mowgli, an Indian child who gels lost in the jungle and is brought up by a family of wolves. While in the United States, Kipling also visited Gloucester, Mass., to con­duct research on fishing fleets for his sea novel, «Captains Cou­rageous» (1897).

Later carecr. Kipling returned to England in 1896. He wrote poems for the «London Times» that made bold political judgments and prophesied the direction of international events. For example, «Recessional» warned the British of complacency in the face of rising militarism in Germany. Kipling also urged the need for a slow transfer of power from colonial governments to native popu­lations in parts of the British Empire.

Kipling returned to the subject of India in his finest novel, «Kim» (1900). The story tells of an Irish orphan who adopts early and completely to Indian ways. The novel became a classic because of its rich rendering of the multiple cultures of India. It offers por­traits of unforgettable characters — especially native Indians.

Another book of children's stories, the «Just So Stories», ap­peared in 1902. It gives humorous explanations of such questions as how the leopard got its spots and how the elephant got its trunk. Kipling reviewed English history for children in «Puck of Pook's Hill» (1906), and «Rewards and Fairies» (1910).

Kipling's later works reveal a darkened view of the world. His daughter, Josephine, died of pneumonia in 1899, and his son, John, died in 1915 in the Battle of Loos during World War I. In addition, Kipling's concerns about his own health colored the fiction of his later years. He suffered from a bleeding ulcer for years before it was finally diagnosed in 1933. Kipling's last three volumes of short stories, «А Diversity of Creatures» (1917), «Debits and Credits» (1926), and «Limits and Renewals» (1932), stress the realities of pain and death. An unfinished autobiography, «Something of My­self», was published in 1937, after his death.

Vocabulary

appoint - назначать

deadly disease - смертельная болезнь

board - сесть на корабль

foster parents - приемные родители

desert - покидать, оставлять

enroll - зачислять, поступать

inexpensively - недорого

adolescent - юношеский

brutality - грубость, жестокость

considerably - значительно

doomed - обреченный

tremendous - огромный

rent - снимать (дом)

prophesy - пророчить, предсказывать

complacency - благодушие, удовлетворенность

orphan - сирота

render - передавать

ulcer - язва

Answer the Questions

1. What works is Kipling best known for?

2. When and where was he born?

3. Where did he go when he was 5?

4. Did he go to the university after school?

5. Was Kipling a popular writer during his lifetime?

6. What books did Kipling write being in America?

7. What books are about India?

8. What do his later works reveal?

8.8. William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats, (1865—1939), an Irish poet and drama­tist, won the 1923 Nobel Prize for literature. Many critics consider him the greatest poet of his time. Yeats led the Irish Literary Re­vival, a movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's that stimu­lated new appreciation of traditional Irish literatim;. The movement also encouragcd the creation of works written in the spirit of Irish culture, as distinct from English culture.

Yeats developed elaborate theories about history as a recurring cycle of events. He expressed his personal views about history and life through the use of old Irish talcs and the facts and legends of Irish history. His views also reflect his belief in the supernatural. Yeats published his theories in «А Vision» (1925), a book that is useful as a guide to some of his more difficult poems.

Yeats was born in Dublin and lived in London for part of his childhood. He spent many holidays in Sligo, a county in western Ireland that he loved and often wrote about. In 1898, he joined the authors Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn in establishing the Irish Literary Theatre. It was reorganized in 1904 as the Abbey Theatre, which became world famous.

The Irish Literary Theatre was founded partly to support Irish nationalism by encouraging the writing and production of plays about Irish life. The theater performed most of Yeats's 26 plays, and he served until his death as one of the directors who managed the institution. The theater's first production was Yeats's «The Countess Cathleen», written in 1891. This play was inspired in part by the author's love for Maud Gonne, a beautiful Irish na­tionalist leader. She became the subject of many of his plays and love lyrics.

Yeats's verse, unlike that of most poets, improved as he grew older. He wrote much of his best work in the last 10 years of his life. His most important works were published in «Collected Plays» (1952) and «The Poems: A New Edition» (1984). «Memoirs», con­taining autobiographical writings, was published in 1973.