Weekly Classics Discussions

Rudyard Kipling

Special thanks to Dini__Kat for recommending Rudyard Kipling to discuss!

❝I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.❞

-- Rudyard Kipling

English writer, poet, and prose writer, Rudyard Kipling, his full name is Joseph Rudyard Kipling, was known for his writings to be of British soldiers in India and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was born in Bombay [now Mumbai], India on December 30, 1865. Kipling was taken to England by his parents when he was six years old and was left for five years at a foster home at Southsea.  

He experienced bullying, teasing, and beating while attending the school. In 1882, he went back to India and worked for seven years as a journalist. He published his prose in the Department Ditties in 1886, the short-story collection Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and 1889 he published six short stories. Kipling's fame grew in 1892 when his verse collection Barrack-Room Ballads published. His popularity rose so quickly!

His most well-known stories and collection of stories are Kim (1901), about an Irish orphan in India, and The Jungle Book (1894) and its sequel The Second Jungle Book (1895).

In London, Rudyard Kipling passed away on January 18, 1936.

Discussion Questions:

With Kipling gaining popularity so quickly, what are your thoughts on popularity or how someone gets popular? If it happened to you, would you prefer the slow stead growth or an exponential growth?

Which of his prose / poems do you adore?

If you could write, would you prefer writing short stories, novellas, or stories (50K + words)?

Always open to additional questions and comments on about Rudyard Kipling and his works.

If there is another author you would like to see a discussion on, please post your suggestion in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!

Resources:

Rudyard Kipling Britannica

Rudyard Kipling Quotes

Rudyard Kipling Wikipedia