The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893-94. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont.

It came without warning, at the very hour his hand was outstretched to crumple the Holz and Gunsberg Combine. The New York doctors called it overwork, and he lay in a darkened room, one ankle crossed above the other, tongue pressed into palate, wondering whether the next brain-surge of prickly fires would drive his soul from all anchorages. At last they gave judgment.

At nine o'clock of a gusty winter night I stood on the lower stages of one of the G. P. O. outward mail towers. My purpose was a run to Quebec in "Postal Packet 162 or such other as may be appointed"; and the Postmaster-General himself countersigned the order. This talisman opened all doors, even those in the despatching-caisson at the foot of the tower, where they were delivering the sorted Continental mail.

In summer all right-minded boys built huts in the furze-hill behind the College-little lairs whittled out of the heart of the prickly bushes, full of stumps, odd root-ends, and spikes, but, since they were strictly forbidden, palaces of delight. And for the fifth summer in succession, Stalky, McTurk, and Beetle (this was before they reached the dignity of a study) had built like beavers a place of retreat and meditation, where they smoked.

'WHAT do you think she'd do if she caught us? We oughtn't to have it, you know, ' said Maisie. 'Beat me, and lock you up in your bedroom, ' Dick answered, without hesitation. 'Have you got the cartridges?' 'Yes; they're in my pocket, but they are joggling horribly. Do pin-fire cartridges go off of their own accord?' 'Don't know. Take the revolver, if you are afraid, and let me carry them.' 'I'm not afraid.' Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air. Dick followed with a small pin-fire revolver.

The Portable Kipling contains selections from The Jungle Books and Soldiers Three; more than twenty stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King," "The Cat that Walked by Himself," "The Eye of Allah," and the unsettling "Mary Postgate"; more than fifty poems; and three essays. The volume also includes a complete chronology and a critical introduction by Irving Howe that permits us to see the formal achievements of Kipling's work as well as to enjoy its abundant pleasures--not least of which is the sheer satisfaction of great storytelling.

"Backgrounds" explores the novel's complicated issues of multiculturalism, imperialism, and racism, allowing readers to glimpse Kipling's personal thoughts about British expansionism. Included are two short stories, poems, and letters by Kipling, as well as autobiographical and biographical memoirs and contemporary reviews ofKim. "Criticism" collects fourteen wide-ranging assessments of the novel by Noel Annan, Irving Howe, Edward Said, Ian Baucom, A. Michael Matin, John A. McClure, Anne Parry, Michael Hollington, Parama Roy, Sara Suleri, Patrick Williams, Suvir Kaul, Mark...

At the start of Captains Courageous, one of literature's most beloved stories of the sea, a spoiled rich boy is literally swept away -- dashed overboard from an ocean liner. Luckily, young Harvey Cheyne is rescued by a passing fishing vessel.As it turns out, Harvey's apparent misfortune in tumbling from a life of pampered luxury into the humble company of a fishing schooner becomes a blessing in disguise. Compelled by the captain to earn his keep, Harvey loses his affectations as he learns the rewards of an honest day's labor amid the gruff and hearty companionship of the crewmen, who...

Accounts of a courageous youngster and formidable creatures of the Indian jungle abound in this series of 14 imaginative tales. Mowgli, a boy raised by a wolf pack, learns the lore of the jungle from its inhabitants; Rikki-tikki-tavi, a brave mongoose, defeats a deadly cobra; and more.

Returning to the horror story genre again and again during the first 20 years of his literary career, Rudyard Kipling produced a substantial body of work in the genre. This collection includes 17 of the best of these tales.
Written in Kipling s vigorous, plain-spoken manner and gathered together for the first time in one volume, the stories vary widely in tone, style, and subject matter from comic ghost stories ( Haunted Subalterns ) to grim tales of psychological terror ( The Wandering Jew )
to chilling stories of the returning dead ( The Lost Legion ). Also included are the title...