Kim

Kim is, in fact and upon the surface, but an insignificant fragment of human history; a bit out of the biography of a little vagabond of Irish parentage, orphaned when a baby, and left to shift for himself in infinite India. But the subtlety of the East and the faculty of the West are blended in this terroe filius, this tricksy foundling of earth’s oldest earth. His adventures are many and enthralling. He joins himself, as scout and general provider, -incidentally, also, as chela or disciple-to a saintly old lama from Tibet, bound to the Wheel of Things, and roaming India in search of the Stream of Immortality. The pious people of the country are permitted to acquire merit by feeding and lodging these two, between whom there grows up an odd but very beautiful affection. -Review in The Atlantic, Dec. 1901 Everything Kipling wrote, even to a farcical extravaganza inspired by his enthusiasm for the motorcar, breathed the meteoric energy that was the nature of the man. A vigorous and unconventional poet, a pioneer in the modern phase of literary Imperialism, and one of the rare masters in English prose of the art of the short story, Mr. Kipling had already by the opening of the 20th century won the most conspicuous place among the creative literary forces of his day. His position in English literature was recognized in 1907 by the award to him of the Nobel prize. -Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911