Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy

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Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy

by Rudyard Kipling, Stephen Jones (Editor), Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author) (Introduction)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 118 ratings · 19 reviews

"Rudyard Kipling is one of the finest writers of fantasy in the last one hundred years."-Ray Bradbury "Kipling has seen a perfect Odyssey of strange experiences."-Andrew Lang

Rudyard Kipling (18651936) was born in Bombay, India, but was raised in England until he returned to India in 1881 as a journalist. In 1907, Kipling became the first English writer to win the Nobel Pri...more

Paperback, 785 pages

Published 2008

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Mar 28, 2010 Keely rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Readers and Writers

Shelves: short-story, horror, fantasy, sea-story, science-fiction, mystery, religion, reviewed, humor, gothic, dystopian, asia, uk-and-ireland, favorites

Kipling's is one of those imaginations which, slipping here and there, seems to plant the seeds for numerous books and genres yet to be devised. He writes to pique, slowly twisting out his stories and drawing the reader along unexpected and unrecognized roads. Each tale might set the mind on a new and unusual tack, and hence, more than anything, Kipling is an author for authors: an author whose imagination is contagious.

His stories always center around the foreign mystery of his native-born Indi...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Tyler Hayes rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Review, the short version: Read it, and be changed, and never, ever argue with me about the Cthulhu Mythos.

Preface to the long version: I am well aware of Rudyard Kipling's political and social leanings, and the degree to which he was both more extreme than, and sadly sometimes only as extreme as, his contemporaries. I do not agree with nor condone his beliefs, but reading his fiction is not the same as condoning his politics. I hope in vain that this might put a rest to this argument, but I don...more Review, the short version: Read it, and be changed, and never, ever argue with me about the Cthulhu Mythos.

Preface to the long version: I am well aware of Rudyard Kipling's political and social leanings, and the degree to which he was both more extreme than, and sadly sometimes only as extreme as, his contemporaries. I do not agree with nor condone his beliefs, but reading his fiction is not the same as condoning his politics. I hope in vain that this might put a rest to this argument, but I don't expect to put out the chemical fire that is the Internet.

Now, the long version.

Kipling is one of those great writers I am ashamed to admit I have not read much of; beyond the obvious and regrettable Disney exposure I have read a little bit of his Just So Stories. So when I was given a chance to read a collection of his work specifically aimed at my preferred genre(s) via the power of the Christmas present, I jumped at it.

What I read rearranged my brain and took my breath away.

Kipling is, simply put, a master of English prose, and this book captures not only some of his most, but some of the most, inventive stories. "The Mark of the Beast" and "The Man Who Would Be King" are, of course, classics, considered some of Kipling's strongest work; but this book is not merely an excuse to reprint those pieces. Kipling's work here is genuinely masterful, and masterful in a way I do not often attribute to such a clear precursor of later, more prominent works; because while I didn't expect it, I have to trace inspiration, if not origination, of some of the greatest works of speculative fiction back to Kipling. "On the Gate: A Tale of '16" peeks through a good bit in Neil Gaiman; "Wireless" reminds me of Tim Powers; and "A Matter of Fact" predates Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" by a good thirty years; and both of them are not only inspirational, but fantastic stories in their own right.

These are not the highest points in the book, either: "The Finest Story in the World" is beautiful and amusing, and "The Brushwood Boy" pulled at my heart and my tear-ducts. But all of them are worth something, even just a wry smile; there are no low points in this collection.

Or at least, there are no low points that are a fault of Kipling. The only trouble I had with this edition (Pegasus Books, 2008) was its copyediting; it is, in a word, abysmal. Some of this may be idiosyncrasies of Kipling's grammar that I am just too post-Strunk to understand, but it seems in most places like the editorial process was simply ignored; I often found myself having to go back and re-read sections of stories just to understand what Kipling was trying to say. There are worse things in the world than having to re-read Kipling, certainly, but I should not be doing it out of typographic necessity.

All in all, this is going to be a tough book to beat for my favorite of the year, and it will be going on my Inspiration Shelf for those nights when the words are gummed up. If you are a reader, I recommend it; and if you want to write urban fantasy, I'd call it mandatory.(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Nicki Markus rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found it hard to get into this book. To be fair, I've found Kipling a bit heavy going in the past - there's just something about his writing style that puts me off - but when I saw this book of his short stories, I felt it was time to give him a second chance.

Certainly a few of the stories caught my interest and held it, but for the most part I found them too verbose to ever be really chilling. The ideas were there, including a delightful mix of commentary on and borrowing from Indian culture,...more

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Sep 16, 2011 M Christopher rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

This book took me a while to read for several reasons. For one thing, at the time I started it, I was also working through the massive "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years." I almost always have 2 or three books going at once so I can switch off depending on my mood and concentration level. Also, my Sabbatical ended while I was working on this volume, which meant I had far less time to read. Most importantly though, and what kept me from giving this collection 5 stars, is that it starts...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm sorry to admit that I had never read anything of Rudyard Kipling before this book, except for the occasional poem. He's an amazing writer, I ought to read more.

This is not one of his children's books. The stories are decidedly creepy, but several of them have that British dry humor to go along with it. The introduction by Neil Gaiman (a current, well-regarded fantasy and horror author) mentions that Rudyard Kipling has fallen out of favor because of some of his political views. I found the "...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Brenton Nichol rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-and-adventure, horror

I'd never read any Kipling before this, not being familiar with any of his works other than The Jungle Book (and I don't think I've even read that...embarrassingly, I've only experienced it by way of the old Disney adaptation). I picked it up first and foremost because I'm on the hunt for classic horror and science fiction, and also because I was curious what Neil Gaiman had to say about Kipling in his introduction.

I did not know what I was in for. I know when I am reading a solid science fictio...more I'd never read any Kipling before this, not being familiar with any of his works other than The Jungle Book (and I don't think I've even read that...embarrassingly, I've only experienced it by way of the old Disney adaptation). I picked it up first and foremost because I'm on the hunt for classic horror and science fiction, and also because I was curious what Neil Gaiman had to say about Kipling in his introduction.

I did not know what I was in for. I know when I am reading a solid science fiction tale. I know when I am reading a well-crafted ghost story. I also know when what I am reading transcends whatever basic genre it happens to fall into and enters the realm of timeless Literature. And this describes the work of Kipling. This collection of tales will require multiple readings on my part before I ever feel like I have even a tenuous grasp on Kipling's craft. As noted in Gaiman's introduction, the characters herein feel so much more real than other authors' characters, with lives that happened before the story and that go on after the story. There is, within these pages, such a deep and pervading sense of history, of the collective human organism burbling to and fro, a river running through time, that you easily lose the sense that you are reading someone's attempt at fiction and instead feel that you are in fact reading true snapshots taken out of this planet's half-known and half-understood past. This is Beautiful Literature.

The collection here covers a wide swath of ground, from traditional supernatural ghost stories to globe-trotting treks of adventure to visceral macabre tales of human struggle. There are even a small handful of far-flung speculative pieces with feet solidly planted in science fiction. The highlight, of course, is the famous "The Man Who Would Be King", held aloft by more than a few scholars as one of if not the finest short story ever written in the English language (and its reading should be quickly followed by a viewing of the excellent 1975 film with Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer). My personal favorite may have been "The City of Dreadful Night", which is nothing more than a description of an Indian city's feverish attempt to sleep beneath the heel of summer's monstrous heat, yet is one of the most evocative short stories I've ever read.

The one aspect of these writings that I had trouble with, especially earlier in the book, was their deep entrenchment in colonial Indian culture, geography, and nomenclature. In fact, the only thing that would make this book even better would be a fully annotated edition. However, Wikipedia, a dictionary, and Kipling's rich talent for tale-telling will keep you afloat.(less)

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Jun 18, 2012 Courtney marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: library, fiction, poetry, childrens-classics, dystopian-and-apocalyptic, fantasy-and-magic, gothic-macabre, horror, literature-classic, literature-modern, mystery-suspense-intrigue, psychology, pulp-noir, romance, short-stories, supernatural-and-paranormal, z-19th-century, z-20th-century-00s, z-20th-century-10s, z-20th-century-20s, z-20th-century-30s, english-authors, european-authors, dark-and-stormy-night, compilations-florilegium, author-omnibus, story-a-day

1) The Vampire
2) The Dream of Duncan Parrenness
3) The City of Dreadful Night
4) An Indian Ghost in England
5) The Phantom 'Rickshaw
6) The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
7) The Unlimited Draw of Tick Boileau
8) In the House of Suddhoo
9) The Bisara of Pooree
10) Haunted Subalterns
11) By Word of Mouth
12) The Recurring Smash
13) The Dreitarbund
14) Bubbling Well Road
15) The Sending of Dana Da
16) My Own True Ghost Story
17) Sleipner, Late Thurinda
18) The Man Who Would Be King
19) The Solid Muldoon
20) Baboo M...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Finergrind added it

I wish I had read this prior to working in India. India continues to be a mystery to me... Is it a chrome edged, high tech Goliath, or a gilded mandala reflecting the past? Each time I visit India I'm left wanting to know more about. I've read most of Kipling's more popular works, but I'm surprised by his chilling tales of India. I doubt there is a more eerie setting than the countryside of India, and the caste system there provides an opportunity for sufficient horror to be visited on the good,...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Kimberly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-mythology, fiction, scary

I loved this book! My favorite : "The Finest Story of the World." I really enjoyed the tales with the character Mulvaney as well, though for entirely different reasons. The story that I found the most haunting was "The Strange Ride of Marrowbie Jukes." Everything about that tale was disturbing to the core.

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Dec 05, 2010 David Melbie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: I'm not sure who would like these stories other than me. . .

Recommended to David by: Picked myself

. . . Some of these tales are forgettable, but most of them were pretty good. --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.

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Nov 09, 2011 Angie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-project

Only read 4 of the short stories for bookclub. Not my cup of tea! Glad they were short otherwise they would of been 1 star.

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Jul 27, 2012 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Still slowly working my way through these stories.

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Sep 19, 2009 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think I had read most of these already, but I always enjoy Kipling's stories.

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Nov 05, 2011 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 101-readable-classics

Only read 4 of the short stories, can't imagine reading the whole book...just not into horror...

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Jun 06, 2009 Frankie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horror

Neil Gaiman's introduction was eye-opening for me, and this is the first time I've read Kipling while keeping the historical context in mind. I'm liking it so far, and just finished reading "The Man Who Would Be King"...it looks like the movie with Sean Connery was pretty true to the story (although it's been a LONG time since I've seen the movie).

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Dec 28, 2012 Siobhan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have loved Kipling since I was a little girl, but I'd never really read much of his darker writing. I was happy to find that I enjoyed it just as much as his lighter works.

A nice little collection- maybe not for everyone since Kipling's writing style is very much a product of when he was writing.

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Feb 27, 2009 Will marked it as to-read

Just got this as a holiday gift and it looks magnificent. It looks like 785 pages of inspiration to finish one of the seven stories I have running right now. Thanks, Kate!

UPDATE: Kipling's got this remarkably casual voice, dressed in Victorian style. I'd forgotten. It's lovely.

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Mar 01, 2011 Roseann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some stories are great, others I just don't get...guess it's the period humor or references that make things a little difficult to comprehend!

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Jun 22, 2009 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman, who wrote the introduction, but I've never read Kipling.
Update - Good introduction to Kipling.

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May 15, 2013 Marina Azul marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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About Rudyard Kipling

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

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