Jungle Books (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Read online

  Table of Contents

  From the Pages of The Jungle Books

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Rudyard Kipling

  The World of Rudyard Kipling and The Jungle Books

  Introduction

  The Jungle Book

  Mowgli’s Brothers

  HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK

  Kaa’s Hunting

  ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG

  “Tiger! Tiger!”

  MOWGLI’ S SONG

  The White Seal

  LUKANNON

  “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi ”

  DARZEE’S CHAUNT

  Toomai of the Elephants

  SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER

  Her Majesty’s Servants

  PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS

  The Second Jungle Book

  How Fear Came

  THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

  The Miracle of Purun Bhagat

  A SONG OF KABIR

  Letting in the Jungle

  MOWGLI’S SONG AGAINST PEOPLE

  The Undertakers

  A RIPPLE SONG

  The King’s Ankus

  THE SONG OF THE LITTLE HUNTER

  Quiquern

  “ANGUTIVAN TINA”

  Red Dog

  CHIL’S SONG

  The Spring Running

  THE OUTSONG

  Endnotes

  Inspired by The Jungle Books

  Comments & Questions

  For Further Reading

  From the Pages of The Jungle Books

  THE JUNGLE BOOK

  “By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man.”

  (from “Mowgli’s Brothers,” page 19)

  The Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.

  (from “Kaa’s Hunting,” page 30)

  “We be of one blood, ye and I.”

  (from “Kaa’s Hunting,” page 33)

  Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don’t you envy our pranceful bands? Don’t you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn’t you like if your tails were—so—Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow? Now you’re angry, but—never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

  (from “Road-Song of the Bandar-Log,” page 56)

  No cradle is so comfortable as the long, rocking swell of the Pacific.

  (from “The White Seal,” page 86)

  It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity.

  (from “‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’” page 106)

  When a snake misses its stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next.

  (from “‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’” page 111)

  “Anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night.”

  (from “Her Majesty’s Servants,” page 155)

  THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK

  The Law of the Jungle—which is by far the oldest law in the world—has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it.

  (from “How Fear Came,” page 177)

  “They came back with the news that in a cave in the Jungle sat Fear, and that he had no hair, and went upon his hind legs. Then we of the Jungle followed the herd till we came to that cave, and Fear stood at the mouth of it, and he was, as the buffaloes had said, hairless, and he walked upon his hinder legs. When he saw us he cried out, and his voice filled us with the fear that we have now of that voice when we hear it, and we ran away, tramping upon and tearing each other because we were afraid.” (from “How Fear Came,” page 187)

  The strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. (from “The Law of the Jungle,” page 193)

  Mowgli, his head on Mother Wolf’s side, smiled contentedly, and said that, for his own part, he never wished to see, or hear, or smell Man again. (from “Letting in the Jungle,” page 218)

  “To hear is one thing; to know is another.”

  (from “The Undertakers,” page 251)

  “What more can I wish? I have the Jungle, and the favor of the Jungle! Is there more anywhere between sunrise and sunset?”

  (from “The King’s Ankus,” page 278)

  He had the good conscience that comes from paying debts; all the Jungle was his friend, and just a little afraid of him.

  (from “Red Dog,” page 325)

  “Man goes to Man at the last.”

  (from “The Spring Running,” page 369)

  Published by Barnes & Noble Books

  122 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10011

  www.barnesandnoble.com/classics

  The Jungle Book was first published in 1894.

  The Second Jungle Book was published the following year.

  Published in 2004 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction,

  Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By, Comments & Questions,

  and For Further Reading.

  Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading

  Copyright © 2004 by Lisa Makman.

  Note on Rudyard Kipling, The World of Rudyard Kipling and The Jungle Books,

  Inspired by The Jungle Books, and Comments & Questions

  Copyright © 2004 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

  including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and

  retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Barnes & Noble Classics and the Barnes & Noble Classics colophon are

  trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

  The Jungle Books

  ISBN 1-59308-109-X

  eISBN : 978-1-411-43246-8

  LC Control Number 2004101080

  Produced and published in conjunction with:

  Fine Creative Media, Inc.

  322 Eighth Avenue

  New York, NY 10001

  Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

  Printed in the United States of America

  QM

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  FIRST PRINTING

  Rudyard Kipling

  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India, to a prominent couple. In 1871 Rudyard and his sister, Alice, were sent to England to live under the foster care of the Holloway family in Southsea. During six years there, the young boy was the subject of frequent physical and emotional abuse, an experience that left him deeply scarred. In 1878, at age twelve, he enrolled at the United Services College in Devon, where he remained for four years. At school he discovered his love of literature and began to write, taking Edgar Allan Poe as his primary model. His first work, Schoolboy Lyrics, was published in 1881.

  Kipling returned to India in 1882 and began working at a Lahore newspaper, the Civil and Military Gazette, followed by a three-year stint at another paper, the Pioneer, in Allahabad. At a time when British expansionism was near its zenith, Kipling began writing stories about Western colonization. His volume of poems Departmental Ditties was published in 1886, and in 1888 several collections of Indian stories, including Plain Tales from the Hills and his six-volume Indian Railway Library series, appeared, bringing him immense popularity. Returning to England in 1889 by way of Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and America, Kipling attained literary celebrity, though he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1890. After recovering he published a novel, The Light That Failed, and a collection of stories, Li
fe’s Handicap.

  In 1892 Kipling married an American, Caroline Balestier, the sister of his friend and agent Wolcott Balestier, with whom he collaborated on a second novel, The Naulahka, published that same year. Barrack-Room Ballads also appeared in 1892. The Kiplings settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where their daughters, Josephine and Elsie, were born. There Kipling wrote Many Inventions (1893) and the two Jungle Books (1894 and 1895), and began working on Kim. After a violent argument with his brother-in-law, Kipling returned to England in 1896 and settled on the Sussex coast in 1897, the year his son, John, was born and Kipling’s novel Captains Courageous was published. Two years later Kipling became seriously ill with pneumonia, and his daughter Josephine died, yet he brought out Stalky & Co. and a travel book, From Sea to Sea.

  Kim was published in 1901, and the following year Kipling moved to Burwash, Sussex, where he produced his children’s books Just So Stories (1902) and Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906). In 1907 he became the first English writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1915 Kipling’s son, John, was killed in battle during World War I. Haunted by this event and in declining health, Kipling nonetheless continued to write.

  George Orwell described Kipling as “the prophet of British Imperialism,” and his imperialist sentiments were reflected in such poems as “The White Man’s Burden” (1899). These convictions strengthened as he grew older, putting him at an increasing distance from the political and moral realities of the changing world. Later in life Kipling became highly critical of the Liberal government that won control of the British parliament, finding fault with its pacifist policies during World War I and actively supporting an increase in military spending for national defense. He did not live to see the extinction of his imperialist visions. On January 18, 1936, Rudyard Kipling died, shortly before World War II and the subsequent decline of the British Empire. His autobiography, Something of Myself, was published posthumously.

  The World of Rudyard Kipling and The Jungle Books

  1775 The thirteen American colonies rebel against British rule, in a revolution that will last until 1783. Through out the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the British Empire gains more territory, including parts of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and India.

  1837- 1838 Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, is published; the title character is generally considered the first child hero in the British novel.

  1857- 1858 The Indian Mutiny takes place, a bid for independence from British rule. The British East India Company, in corporated in 1600 to exploit trade, has long since evolved into an agent of British imperialism. The rebel lion results in the company’s dissolution, and in 1858 the British government assumes direct rule of India, ending the Moghul Empire and beginning the British Raj. The British Empire expands to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf in the west and to the Malay states, Hong Kong, and Shanghai in the east.

  1859 Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Nat ural Selection appears; the work has a profound influence on popular views of the natural world.

  1865 Joseph Rudyard Kipling is born on December 30 in Bombay, India, to John Lockwood Kipling, a professor of architectural sculpture at the Bombay School of Art, and Alice Macdonald Kipling, an in-law of the Pre Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Lewis Car roll publishes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

  1868 In March the Kipling family arrives in England, where Rudyard’s sister, Alice, is born. Shortly thereafter the Kiplings return to India. Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Women.

  1869 Matthew Arnold publishes his influential text Culture and Anarchy, which warns that anarchy results from wor shiping freedom as an end in itself.

  1870 Rudyard’s brother, John, is born but dies in infancy.

  1871 The family sails again for England, where Rudyard and Alice are placed in foster care with the Holloway family at a house in Southsea that Kipling later called “The House of Desolation”; their parents return to India. Rudyard’s subjection to physical and emotional abuse in the foster home leaves him scarred.

  1876 Mrs. Kipling returns to England and discovers the mis treatment of her children. She removes Rudyard from the Holloway home. Queen Victoria is declared em press of India.

  1878 Kipling enters the United Services College, a private boarding school where he develops a love of literature.

  1881 Kipling’s Schoolboy Lyrics is published. The Boers, white farmers of Dutch descent in South Africa, revolt against British control as the Empire continues to expand on the African continent.

  1882 Kipling leaves the college and returns to Lahore, India, where he takes a job as assistant editor of the Civil and Military Gazette. For the next seven years, he writes about Anglo-Indian relations and the problems arising out of British colonialism.

  1884 Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

  1885 Kipling becomes a Freemason, a member of a secret fra ternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons.

  1886 He writes numerous stories for the Gazette and publishes Departmental Ditties, a collection of satirical poems about the English in India originally written for the paper.

  1887 He leaves the Gazette and heads for Allahabad, where he begins work as editor of a larger paper, the Pioneer, a sis ter publication of the Gazette.

  1888 Kipling publishes Plain Tales from the Hills, a collection of stories about colonial life in India, and his six-volume Indian Railway Library series: Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, In Black and White, Under the Deodars, The Phantom Rickshaw, and Wee Willie Winkie.

  1889 He leaves India with a commission from the Pioneer to write travel articles about his journey to England via Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and America (later collected in From Sea to Sea, published in 1899). He settles in London and develops a reputation as a brilliant writer. The reissue in England of his Indian Railway Library series, originally published in India in 1888, further elevates his status as a writer.

  1890 In January Kipling suffers a nervous breakdown. His first novel, The Light That Failed, is published in a twelve chapter version and meets with modest success.

  1891 He travels to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and India (his last visit to that country). He publishes Life’s Handicap, a collection of Indian stories. The Light That Failed is published in a fourteen-chapter version.

  1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies. Kipling marries Caroline Balestier, an American and the sister of his friend and agent Wolcott Balestier. The couple plan a trip around the world, and travel as far as Japan. Their voyage is in terrupted because the bank that holds Kipling’s savings fails and because Caroline becomes pregnant. The cou ple sets up house in Brattleboro, Vermont, the Balestiers’ hometown, where Kipling begins to compose the Jungle Book stories. Kipling publishes Barrack-Room Ballads, a book of verse celebrating army life in the British Empire (including the famous “Gunga Din,” about a Hindu water carrier for a British Indian regi ment, and “Fuzzy Wuzzy”), and a second novel, The Naulahka, written in collaboration with Wolcott Balestier. The Kiplings’ first child, Josephine, is born.

  1893 Many Inventions, a volume of Kipling’s short stories, is published.

  1894- Two collections of animal stories for children set in

  1895 India, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, featur ing such memorable characters as Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera, are published.

  the Gadsbys, In Black and White, Under the Deodars, The Phantom Rickshaw, and Wee Willie Winkie.

  1889 He leaves India with a commission from the Pioneer to write travel articles about his journey to England via Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and America (later collected in From Sea to Sea, published in 1899). He settles in London and develops a reputation as a brilliant writer. The reissue in England of his Indian Railway Library series, originally published in India in 1888, further elevates his status as a writer.

  1890 In January Kipling suffers a nervous breakdown. His first novel, The
Light That Failed, is published in a twelve chapter version and meets with modest success.

  1891 He travels to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and India (his last visit to that country). He publishes Life’s Handicap, a collection of Indian stories. The Light That Failed is published in a fourteen-chapter version.

  1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies. Kipling marries Caroline Balestier, an American and the sister of his friend and agent Wolcott Balestier. The couple plan a trip around the world, and travel as far as Japan. Their voyage is in terrupted because the bank that holds Kipling’s savings fails and because Caroline becomes pregnant. The cou ple sets up house in Brattleboro, Vermont, the Balestiers’ hometown, where Kipling begins to compose the Jungle Book stories. Kipling publishes Barrack-Room Ballads, a book of verse celebrating army life in the British Empire (including the famous “Gunga Din,” about a Hindu water carrier for a British Indian regi ment, and “Fuzzy Wuzzy”), and a second novel, The Naulahka, written in collaboration with Wolcott Balestier. The Kiplings’ first child, Josephine, is born.

  1893 Many Inventions, a volume of Kipling’s short stories, is published.

  1894- Two collections of animal stories for children set in

  1895 India, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, featur ing such memorable characters as Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera, are published.