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The Jungle Books
The adventures of Mowgli, a man-child raised by wolves in the jungle, have captured the imaginations not just of children, but of all readers, for generations.
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
May 3rd 2005
by Signet Classics
(first published 1894)
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Once again, I'm struck by the savagery that resonates throughout Kipling's writing. It would be so easy to think of The Jungle Book in a more Disney-fied light: talking animals, singing, the rhythmic cadences of a fairy tale or lullaby. But overarching all that is the ever-present reminder that the world of the jungle is a world of nature, red in tooth and claw. Mowgli is raised by wolves and instructed by Baloo for the explicit purpose of survival in a harsh world that activ...more
Once again, I'm struck by the savagery that resonates throughout Kipling's writing. It would be so easy to think of The Jungle Book in a more Disney-fied light: talking animals, singing, the rhythmic cadences of a fairy tale or lullaby. But overarching all that is the ever-present reminder that the world of the jungle is a world of nature, red in tooth and claw. Mowgli is raised by wolves and instructed by Baloo for the explicit purpose of survival in a harsh world that activ...more
Joe
rated it
Yeah, yeah, ignore the White Man's Burden stuff. Kipling is one of the best storytellers who ever lived, and neither the author's obnoxious politics nor a complete butchery of this wonderful wonderful story in its many terrible movie incarnations can take away the fact that the Mowgli stories of this and the Second Jungle Book are some of the greatest tales ever created. Read this, for real. It's a classic.
Before Tarzan there was Mowgli, lost in a jungle in India as a child and taken in by a family of wolves. He is raised by the animals of the jungle, and has adventures with them. He learns loyalty and devotion and the Jungle Law. Every small boy eventually grows up but, to pararphrase Kipling, his adult adventures are a different story. Written in 1894 and 1895 the two collections of adventure/jungle/wilderness stories are included in one volume. Mowgli and his stories are the vast majority,...more
I hadn't picked up my Kipling collection in a long time and references to it in "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" made me long for my old friends. Old friends in Rikki Tikki Tavi and Toomai of the Elephants, but new discoveries, too, as I had never read the real Jungle Book with its stories of the destructive Red Dog the heartbreak of The Spring Running and the lessons of Puran Bhagat. Here the wisdom, humor and fearsomeness of Bagheera, Kaa, Grey Brother, Baloo shine through as they cann...more
I read this to Nick because I read it myself as a first grader. (Yes, I was a precocious reader.) Since I haven't even glanced at it in the quarter century of intervening years, it was interesting to come back to it.
In some ways I was disappointed as an adult reader. The formal, quasi-Elizabethan language the animals use to talk to each other struck me as pretentious, which I don't believe was at all my original reaction. There was that almost total lack of female characters that is...more
In some ways I was disappointed as an adult reader. The formal, quasi-Elizabethan language the animals use to talk to each other struck me as pretentious, which I don't believe was at all my original reaction. There was that almost total lack of female characters that is...more
Similar to many of the Grimm Brothers stories, Disney has taken several of the stories from "The Jungle Books", and toned them down to a child's level movie, while the true story is much darker.
In "Mowgli's Brothers" a mother wolf finds a baby in the forests and adopts it, but not without trouble from the other animals, especially Shere Khan. Once the baby grows, he hears of a plan that Shere Khan has against him, and he must leave the animals and return to mankind....more
In "Mowgli's Brothers" a mother wolf finds a baby in the forests and adopts it, but not without trouble from the other animals, especially Shere Khan. Once the baby grows, he hears of a plan that Shere Khan has against him, and he must leave the animals and return to mankind....more
A delightful old classic I only recently discovered! According to the accompanying essays, most of the rest of Kipling's oeuvre is disappointing, but The Jungle Books are sublimely creative. Various characters are rotated through each story so that they reappear as hero, antagonist, minor character, or point of reference. Even the human hero, Mowgli, takes on these different roles. All the jungle creatures reveal individual characteristics without being personified. By the time Mowgli regai...more
I was recommended this book by a good friend whenever I was going to be on a flight to Boston for an hour and a half. I'm not a terribly quick reader, and it took me a bit to get into the story, but once I started it was great. I got pulled into Mowgli's struggles and battles, the description of the animals and the jungle itself.
I grew up on the Mel Brooks' Riki Tiki Tavi and Mowgli's Brothers so I was kind of expecting the very unique experience Kipling had to offer. However I hadn'...more
I grew up on the Mel Brooks' Riki Tiki Tavi and Mowgli's Brothers so I was kind of expecting the very unique experience Kipling had to offer. However I hadn'...more
All I've ever known really about the Jungle Book was confined to the film version, which is a far cry from Rudyard Kipling's original. My first surprise, was that this was an anthology, not just the story of Mowgli (but that is by far the best story in the collection). My next surprise came in the language of the story. Kid's read this?
This story did wonders to explain the gaps in learning, creativity. boldness, and initiative between previous generations and the current one. In the...more
This story did wonders to explain the gaps in learning, creativity. boldness, and initiative between previous generations and the current one. In the...more
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Razvan Untaroiu
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
a friend
Recommended to Razvan by:
yes
I spent roughly two weeks reading this book and it was all worth it. Rudyard Kipling's writing is very clear and concise and this book was very eventful. If i had to choose between reading this book and watching the movie, i would definately read this book. If you have seen the movie, you will discover that the true story is a little different, but that is O.K. Another reason why I liked this book is because it contained many creative images that helped me visualize the story as I was reading it...more
Douglas
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of anthropomorphic animals
Recommended to Douglas by:
Neil Gaiman
I had an abridged copy of this book as a child with messy illustrations that I meant to read, I truly did, but I never could get into it.
Over 30 years later I decided to give the book another try since it was so conveniently in my eBook collection. I am so glad that I did. I had read some high praise for Kipling from Neil Gaiman. He was correct. The writing in this book was superb.
I was shocked to learn how cleanly scrubbed the various versions of of this book have been ...more
Over 30 years later I decided to give the book another try since it was so conveniently in my eBook collection. I am so glad that I did. I had read some high praise for Kipling from Neil Gaiman. He was correct. The writing in this book was superb.
I was shocked to learn how cleanly scrubbed the various versions of of this book have been ...more
So I've read some of the previous reviews here and it strikes me as a little humorous that feathers are getting ruffled because an old, white, British imperialist was not fair and tolerant to women, non-whites, animals, and everyone else in his writings. Stories illuminate the minds and opinions of those who wrote them, and in 1894 when The Jungle Book was published there was a man named Rudyard Kipling whose mind and opinions were not the same as ours. Instead of allowing this view so foreign t...more
The Jungle Book is made up of 7 short stories surrounding India. The first three feature Mowgli [translation; Little Frog:] a human baby raised by the Seeonee wolf-pack in the jungles of India.
Shere Khan, a tiger, planed to kill him, but a family of wolves rescued him, dubbed him Mowgli, and refused to let Shere Khan take him. The tiger swears to hunt Mowgli, and Mother Wolf tells Shere Khan that one day, Mowgli shall hunt him down. (And so it is, in the story "Tiger, Tiger!") ...more
Shere Khan, a tiger, planed to kill him, but a family of wolves rescued him, dubbed him Mowgli, and refused to let Shere Khan take him. The tiger swears to hunt Mowgli, and Mother Wolf tells Shere Khan that one day, Mowgli shall hunt him down. (And so it is, in the story "Tiger, Tiger!") ...more
at the very base of the himalayas, there's the lush green of tropical rainforests: rhododendron blossoms, rivers, tigers, snakes; mowgli's rainforests, if you know the jungle books. but ten days of walking (there are no roads, of course) bring you to the high altitude desert of jomsom: windswept, desolate, utterly beautiful in a barren, bleak way. and still, the mountains tower thousands of feet above. these stories imbued my childhood with wonder.
It all starts with a wolf, Father Wolf was his name and he was head of his pack. He was going to go hunting one morning when Tabaqui, an animal that none of the other animals liked one bit, they called him crazy. Father Wolf talked to him and he told them that Shere Khan, a vicious tiger, was on it's way to their home. He heard Shere Khan coming and saw him jumping for something, a Man cub. The boy would later be called Mowgli and he would have the biggest adventure he could ever ask for.
...more
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The Jungle Book was a Project Gutenberg e-text that I read in spare moments on my PDA - it's well suited to this type of reading, as each chapter is more or less stand alone.
I had forgotten that (contrary to Disney) only the first half of this book deals with Mowgli the Man-Cub and his adventures in the jungle. The remainder of the book is short stories and related poetry about wild (and not so wild) animals, mostly in India.
My personal favorite is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - possibly becau...more
I had forgotten that (contrary to Disney) only the first half of this book deals with Mowgli the Man-Cub and his adventures in the jungle. The remainder of the book is short stories and related poetry about wild (and not so wild) animals, mostly in India.
My personal favorite is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - possibly becau...more
"The jungle book" is a book that's been published in 1894. It's written by Rudyard Kipling. The book consists of multiple stories being told against the background of the Indian jungle.
About the book
* Mowgli's brothers
* Hunting-song of the Seeonee Pack (song)
* Kaa's hunting
* Road song of the Bandar-Log (song)
* Tiger! Tiger!
* Mowgli's song (song)
These stories are about Mowlgi, a boy who's been raised in the Indian jungle by wolves. Mother wo...more
About the book
* Mowgli's brothers
* Hunting-song of the Seeonee Pack (song)
* Kaa's hunting
* Road song of the Bandar-Log (song)
* Tiger! Tiger!
* Mowgli's song (song)
These stories are about Mowlgi, a boy who's been raised in the Indian jungle by wolves. Mother wo...more
I am so impressed with Kipling's knowledge of the jungles of India, and of wild life in general, especially considering the time in which this book was compiled. That paired with his very vivid imagination make for a collection of great stories. I did not realize when I began, that this book is really a collection of short stories, and that Mowgli, and the jungles of India, are only featured in some of them. However, many of the other stories were just as enjoyable as Mowgli's stories, so onc...more
Perhaps surprisingly, I don't recall ever having read Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Books," despite obviously having done so having grown up in the public school system in the South. There's no way that I could have possibly evaded reading this book, and I even have a slight, fleeting recollection of reading Rikki Tiki Tavi at some point in my existence – somewhere, somehow, some little bit of that beyond the Disney presentation made its way into my hindbrain.
I have no idea h...more
I have no idea h...more
“Kipling is intensely loved and hated. Hardly any reader likes him a little... One moment I am filled with delight at the variety and solidarity of his imagination; and then, at the very next moment, I am sick, sick to death, of the whole Kipling world. Of course, one can reach temporary saturation point with any author; there comes an evening when even Boswell or Virgil will do no longer. But one parts from them as a friend: one knows one will want them another day; and in the interval...more
In a really roundabout way, Kipling is responsible for you crying at Bambi (I didn't cry, I was just confused. The subtlety of the gunshot of camera didn't register. I spent the rest of the movie thinking Bambi's dad had gained sole custody. I was kind of stupid kid sometimes.) The Jungle Book is one of the early popular cases where an author so thoroughly anthropomorphosized animals.
It's really a smug assumption that fits well with the British imperial mindset of the book. In a posi...more
It's really a smug assumption that fits well with the British imperial mindset of the book. In a posi...more
I kept this book by the bedside and every night when I started reading, I didn't want to stop. Awesome. I absolutely LOVED it. Love, love, LOVED it! The short stories are fantastic. I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone. I personally consider Kipling one of the greatest storytellers I have ever read.
Beautifully written and told, this is a definite read-aloud for my children. The story of Mowgli is awesome.
We have an "insider's look" at how Disney creat...more
Beautifully written and told, this is a definite read-aloud for my children. The story of Mowgli is awesome.
We have an "insider's look" at how Disney creat...more
A short commentary on the book. This book clearly influences western culture and literature immensely. More than just Disney's version (in which the reversed the personalities of Baloo, Baghera, and Kaa), which I love dearly. In things I've read in just the last six months or so, Neil Gaiman and J.R.R. Tolkien both have been heavily influenced. I would strongly recommend this book to anybody even if you have read it before.
A short rant on the author: So, I've been on a bit of a ...more
A short rant on the author: So, I've been on a bit of a ...more
I'm not really sure what I think about this book. I think because I didnt realise that 'The Jungle Book' was a series of short stories this took me by surprise and thus it took me a while to get my head around this. However, all of the stories are really well written, and Kiplings discussion of the animal mentality is really well constructed and shows some great observation on his part. The songs that Kipling iincludes in this book are also really lovely.
The Mowgli stories were my favourite...more
The Mowgli stories were my favourite...more
Mohmmed
added it
The story talks about Indian families who were in the woods and attacked them the evil tiger Shere Khan. The Indian family lost their son. The Wolves family accept the son is as their own. The little boy named Mowgli. He is jungle boy grows up in the Indian jungle.
Mowgli loves the forest as well as he used on the lives of animals also he knows how to hunt and how to protect himself. Mowgli knows a lot of good friends and they are Bagheera the Black Panther, Baloo the bear and a big ...more
A lot of people are familiar with the story of Mowgli in the Indian jungle, but that is mostly because Disney made a film about it (special in its own right coz it was the last one Walk Disney worked on). However there are NO orangutans in the Indian Jungle (no matter how much you want Louis Prima to be in your movie) and Ka was a kick-ass snake and total buds with Mowgli. Of course The Jungle Books is more than just Mowgli and the other stories are just as good, if not better at times. Kipling ...more
Overall, I found this book to be an enjoyable read. Having only seen the movie adaptions before, I expected much more of the book to be focused on Mowgli the jungle boy who lives with the animals. Instead, his story was only a portion of the book. The Jungle Book turned out to be a series of short stories from both tame and wild animals. It became a social commentary on the effects that man has on nature and vice versa. The animals were portrayed with a respect to their individual intelligence, ...more
I have mixed feelings about this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed "The Miracle of Purin Bhagat", "Rikki Tikki Tavi", "The White Seal" and most of the Mowgli stories but I found myself bored by the rest.
The language is very dated and reads like some kind of King James Bible pastiche with all the "thees and thous". This didn't help my overall enjoyment. The writing itself is 100% serious with no humour and is as dry as a bone.
This book...more
I thoroughly enjoyed "The Miracle of Purin Bhagat", "Rikki Tikki Tavi", "The White Seal" and most of the Mowgli stories but I found myself bored by the rest.
The language is very dated and reads like some kind of King James Bible pastiche with all the "thees and thous". This didn't help my overall enjoyment. The writing itself is 100% serious with no humour and is as dry as a bone.
This book...more
This is another classic that was "Disney-fied" (I also read Alice in Wonderland) and my opinion of the story is quite different than Disney's cutesy version. The tale is raw, and paints a rough life in the jungle that even became dry and difficult to engage with the characters and follow at times. I often found myself fondly recalling bits of the Disney cartoon movie while I was reading, and was disappointed when the book took a different turn, and did not weave the same silly or cute ...more
Kipling's books are comprised of parables laced with colonialist mores and knotted with social expectations. The man-cub Mowgli represents the wild and innocent nature of humanity and how it must inevitably return to civilization. The structure of the books — chapters preceded by laws of the jungle and proceeded by songs of the jungle — is reminiscent of children's literature, although the deeper themes associated with the many stories are not necessarily age-appropriate for youngsters. From the...more
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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."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kip...
More about Rudyard Kipling...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kip...
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“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
—
49 people liked it
“I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chains -
I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.
I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane;
I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.
I will go out until the day, until the morning break -
Out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress;
I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake.
I will revisit my lost love and playmates masterless!”
—
19 people liked it
More quotes…
I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.
I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane;
I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.
I will go out until the day, until the morning break -
Out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress;
I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake.
I will revisit my lost love and playmates masterless!”
