As a teen, I read The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book over and over and over, mainly skipping the non-Mowgli stories and just reading about his adventures. Which made reading this collection like a little journey back in time to my teen years, curled up in the basement with Bagheera and Mowgli and Kaa and Baloo. Bagheera was ever my favorite back then, and he remains my favorite now, all wise and mysterious and sleek and a little mischievous. I love black cats, and had several as a child and teen, but never named any Bagheera, weirdly enough. If ever we get a black cat again, I will totally name it that.
Anyway. There's one story in this, "In the Rukh," that I'd never read before! That was such a surprising delight! I learned from the Afterword that "In the Rukh" is actually the first Mowgli story Kipling wrote, and his first published story! But chronologically for Mowgli, it's the last story, and involves him getting married and more or less settling down, his four wolf brothers still with him. I really loved that story, as the end of "The Spring Running" is much too sad, with him having to leave the jungle and his wolf family. And that's what I thought the last Mowgli story was, because it's the last one in The Second Jungle Book. I'm SO glad that it's not!
Why do I love these stories so much? Because they're fun, but they've also got a lot of wisdom in them. Can you find a place to belong and build your own family from beings who are unlike you and unrelated to you? Will that "found family" last forever? What if it doesn't? How does growing from a child to an adult both change a person and solidify who they have been from the beginning? How do you take advice you don't like from someone you trust and love? Oh, there's so much wonderful stuff in here. I almost want to just begin at the beginning and read them all over again right now :-)
Particularly Good Bits:
Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down (p. 7).
"Let them fall, Mowgli; they are only tears" (p. 16).
One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging afterward (p. 39).
Here there was some little difficulty with the catch of the door. It had been very firmly fastened, but the crowd tore it away bodily, and the light of the torches streamed into the room where, stretched at full length on the bed, his paws crossed and lightly hung down over one end, black as the Pit, and terrible as a demon, was Bagheera. There was one half-minute of desperate silence, as the front ranks of the crowd clawed and tore their way back from the threshold, and in that minute Bagheera raised his head and yawned -- elaborate, carefully, and ostentatiously -- as he would yawn when he wished to insult an equal. The fringed lips drew back and up; the red tongue curled; the lower jaw dropped and dropped till you could see half-way down the hot gullet; and the gigantic dog-teeth stood clear to the pit of the gums till they rang together, upper and under, with the snick of steel-faced wards shooting home round the edges of a safe. Next instant the street was empty; Bagheera had leaped back through the window, and stood at Mowgli's side, while a yelling, screaming torrent scrambled and tumbled one over another in their panic haste to get to their own huts (p. 88).
"I was rolling in the dust before the gate and dawn, and I may have made also some small song to myself" (p. 89). (I loved this line so much as a teen, I memorized it. I still quote it.)
A large, warm tear splashed down on his knee, and, miserable as he was, Mowgli felt happy that he was so miserable, if you can understand that upside-down sort of happiness (p. 145).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for danger and suspense and some violence.
This is my 40th book read and reviewed for my second go-'round with the Classics Club! Only ten left to hit my goal! I am really hoping to finish this list by the end of the year... so I can start all over again :-)
Kipling is an awesome writer. I never cared much for "The Jungle Book," but I do LOOOOOOOOOVE "Kim." I like his simple, elegant style and his intrepid young characters.
ReplyDeleteKatie, yes, he is. I have 3 or 4 other books of his on my TBR shelves, but Kim is the only other one I've read. Oh, and Just So Stories. I love his style too -- no frills, no fuss, and yet it's smooth and, as you say, elegant, without being all stylish. Mmm, so good.
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