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The Man Who Would Be King

Rudyard Kipling

3.71 · Rating details · 11,463 ratings · 622 reviews

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Paperback, 96 pages

Published April 1st 2005 by Melville House (first published 1888)

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The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling

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· 11,463 ratings · 622 reviews

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Aug 21, 2007 J.G. Keely rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk-and-ireland, fiction, reviewed, africa

I must admit I find the modern backlash against colonialism to be somewhat ridiculous; as if colonialism were something new, something purely European, something malicious and unnatural. What else has mankind done since it rose in Africa but displace its neighbors? What else does any animal do but seek to thrive where it can?

Any successful group soon becomes cramped as their population rises, and hence spreads out to new areas. In this way, each species has developed and then expanded to its lim ...more

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May 01, 2018 Lyn rated it liked it

This is of course the short story from Rudyard Kipling that inspired the 1975 John Huston film starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

First published in 1888, and (as in the film) told from the perspective of Kipling as the story is related to him by Peachy, this is about two British adventurers who leave the empire, cross the border in Kafiristan (an actual region of present day Afghanistan) and set themselves up as kings.

There is some suggestion that the populace of that state is descended fr ...more

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Apr 08, 2020 W marked it as to-read

Shelves: seen-as-movies, fiction, short-stories

The 1975 film,starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine,based on this story is an interesting one.

Two British army sergeants in 19th century India look to turn their fortunes around.They decide to travel to remote Kafiristan.

It's a tough,hazardous journey,but they get there.They have rifles and seeing the effects of bullets,the locals treat them as gods.

Inevitably,this state of affairs does not last and what happens in between,makes for an entertaining movie.Sean Connery is in his element and give ...more

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Feb 24, 2016 Steven Walle rated it liked it

I found this book quite boring and feel guilty for the feeling. I have loved most everything else I have read by this author. The charictors hold no appeal for me and the plot just kind of trugged a long.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

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Mar 08, 2017 Sara rated it really liked it

Brilliantly told. The ending gives me shivers. Wild and unsettling.

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Apr 13, 2011 Richard rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011

Oh my fickle heart. Oh my shifting allegiances.

I find a curious principle at work in my reading. And that priciple is that I will often change my mind... with a fervor. To wit: I will love love love an author and then years later I will find myself passionately renouncing their writing for absolutely no good reason. I used to love C.S. Lewis and Jack Kerouac. But now Lewis' charming Britishness grates on my reading ear and Kerouac's free-spirited writing just sounds like what it is: the work of Oh my fickle heart. Oh my shifting allegiances.

I find a curious principle at work in my reading. And that priciple is that I will often change my mind... with a fervor. To wit: I will love love love an author and then years later I will find myself passionately renouncing their writing for absolutely no good reason. I used to love C.S. Lewis and Jack Kerouac. But now Lewis' charming Britishness grates on my reading ear and Kerouac's free-spirited writing just sounds like what it is: the work of a crazed alcoholic hopped up on Benzedrine.

I don't know why this is. I don't know why I will suddenly turn on something I once loved so dearly and attack it. But spurned authors are like spurned lovers. You wish they would drop off the face of the earth. They remind you of a past you want to forget.

Rudyard Kipling is one of my old flames. About five years ago I really got into The Jungle Books and The Phantom Rickshaw and even read a biography of him. For a few months I lived in and breathed the air of his dark India. But then we drifted apart. I moved on to other authors, other places. After reading heated criticism of Kipling's work in G. K. Chesterton's Heretics, I wrote off old Rudyard's work forever.

... or did I?

I picked up this novella this week because I love everything put out by Melville House Publishing. And I read it. And I must admit it was a bittersweet experience, like seeing the face of an old lover on the street. Oh, Kipling! How I remember your sense of adventure. How I remember the sensory details of your exotic locales and now, yes, I remember your strange humor and the dark magic that you saw that drove men to murder.

So, what's wrong with me? Why can I not just wholly embrace this man's writing?

I want to love Kipling, but for some reason I cannot fully commit to him. I think the problem is that I don't understand his Imperialist mindset. That's to say, I don't disagree with it. But I plain don't understand it. I know I'm not supposed to admit that. I know I'm supposed to be Super Reader Who Understands All. But Kipling's books are a hundred years old and a continent removed from mine. So much of his work references this crazy part of England's history when white guys in pith helmets went around shooting tigers. And I can never tell if Kipling is satirizing this era or if he is tacitly backing this jingoistic, racist imperialism. Try as I might I cannot understand exactly what Kipling is getting at in his books. So while I love his adventure (in The Man Who Would Be King a guy gets crucified and there's a severed head involved, too) I cannot ever make sense of the point he's trying to get across. A little research on my part would, I feel, remedy this situation. But I want Kipling to communicate his message to me in his work.

Like any relationship, communication is the key, Mr. Kipling. Based on the romance and adventure of this novella I am extending you another chance. I’m going to revisit your work. Talk to me. Make me understand your worldview; perchance to convince me of its validity. Maybe there’s something there, still, between us.

Maybe.
...more

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Feb 21, 2014 Isabel rated it really liked it

"Neither God nor Devil, but a man!"

The first time I explore Kipling's work beyond his poetry. I was very surprised by this one.
Although the great interest by the fact that the story is based in real facts, what left me very pleased was the satirical tone of Kliping, especially in what it refers to the british presence on India.

Too bad my portuguese translation (by Vega) isn't very good and makes difficult to understand some parts of the plot. ...more

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Aug 09, 2013 Maryam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics

the first book of Kipling I got to read after Mowgli (The jungle book). very interesting and breathtaking story. always loved Kipling, he basically made me dream of India, hope one day I will get to visit it. Just as usual the atmosphere is very realistic, the story is simply crazy, but good crazy, if you know what I mean. I think it is a must read.

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Jun 13, 2015 Travelin rated it really liked it

Perhaps this was shocking or surprising to empire builders in Kipling's era, but to this modern reader, the troubles of two idiot chancers/minor empire builders in Afghanistan seem slightly obvious. I remember it worked exceptionally well, visually, as a movie with Michael Caine.

Nor do I see much transparent chauvinism. On the contrary, it appears to be a warning to self-centred empire builders. Also, the tribe who caused them the most trouble were "British" and already knew the ridiculous symbo ...more

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Sep 27, 2017 Alex Bledsoe rated it liked it

Kipling has become problematic due to his retrograde ideas about race, and his depiction of societies other than English. Both of those issues are present here as well, but more prominent, at least for me, was the fairly explicit critique of the colonialism that created the British Empire. Here two rascals set out for a distant land with the explicit aim of becoming kings thanks to their advanced weaponry and innate "superiority." At first they succeed, but eventually their reach exceeds their g ...more

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Oct 08, 2014 Richard rated it it was amazing

Kipling's poetry was extravagantly admired during his life time and even for a while after his death. This was certainly because he wrote quite vigorously and was regarded as a great advocate of the great British Empire upon whom the sun never set. While some of his poetry is still appreciated, it hasn't aged well and one can only read about "The White man's burden" with embarrassment and give him a pardon for being a child of his times.

But the same cannot be said about his prose--the short stor ...more

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Dec 29, 2014 Jibran rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, nobel, empire, hindustan

Two Englishmen in India, charlatans, fraudsters, impersonators, swindlers, cheats, who wander about the length of breadth of the country tricking and deceiving people to earn their dough, decide one day that they will journey up the northern mountains to become joint kings of Kafiristan, a mountainous region then outside the borders of British India but which now falls in present-day Pakistan and where old pagan tribes still exist.

Once in Kafiristan they make a show of force with their guns whic ...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Roni rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-edition

Errrr.....An imperialistic view on an insanely unconvincing event. The writer, Rudyard Kipling, employs heavy usage of 19th Century jargons and idioms unique to England and India which makes the reading a bit challenging and difficult for 20th Century Americans. I am fan of history however, fictionalized history about a soldiering society is foreign to me which I was not prepared to invest in. I noticed there were few typos and misspellings. Not too bad for free book.

There is a movie named, "Th ...more

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Jun 16, 2016 Hristina rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, the-classics, short-stories

I have been getting into audiobooks a lot recently, and I tend to enjoy them a lot, but somehow, I got a bit lost with this one. It didn't grasp my attention enough. I struggle when reading classics, because I cannot get into some of them the way I should, I lose focus quickly, which is what happened with this book. Maybe I listened to it at the wrong time. Maybe I'll try again someday, when I've had more than four hours of sleep. Until then, I'm leaving this here as it is. ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 Narendrāditya Nalwa rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-2018

I had read a Malayalam translation of The Jungle Book early in my childhood, and remember re-reading it many times since. But this one couldn't engage me even half through.
...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Sotiris Makrygiannis rated it liked it

Shelves: internet, audio-book, librivox

Short story for Saturday coffee. 2 guys want to build a kingdom in Aphganistan, fine. Has bit of humour but I founded it a bit dry, maybe back then was exotic and adventurous.

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Jul 02, 2013 Therese rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, historical-fiction, free-books, 2013-reads, classics, fiction

The reviews on this book very greatly although seemingly more people got something out of it than I did. It is antiquated and without reading other things, I don't know where it is, and it takes a while to figure out the narrator and just what is going on. You don't have that long to set the stage in such a short book.

Peachy Carnehan and Dan Dravot, con artists, decide they want to be king and take off from India for some remote place in what is now North West Afghanistan. Two years later we are ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Ian Laird rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-stories, india-indian, england-english, fiction

It's hard to forget the images of Sean Connery and Michael Caine as Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan respectively in John Huston's adaptation of the Kipling story. It is also disconcerting to think the director originally wanted to film the story with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable. Would have been a different movie.

Then the Kipling dialogue takes hold and we see his superb eye for the complex and precarious relationship between the British soldiers, in this case ex-soldiers and their fevere ...more

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May 12, 2020 Julie Thilges rated it it was ok

What even is this

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Apr 29, 2016 Cherie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-audio

The best thing I can say is that I finished. I listened to the audio book several times and I read almost all of them over and I still couldn't tell anyone what some of them were about. A few were simply unfathomable to me. Several were very exciting, but strange. My goal was to get through the title story to see the movie. I didn't want the movie to tell me what Kipling wrote. How pathetic was that? I read every word and all the mumbo-jumbo too. Moving on...

I hope Kim is better. I really want t ...more

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Feb 24, 2016 Vicki rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, classics

It is sad that I could not make myself love this. I know it is a classic and really who am I to judge a classic. I just did not enjoy it. I found Peachy Carnehan humorous in starts and stops. But I had no love for his companion Daniel Dravo. I did feel compassion towards the end though.

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Mar 20, 2016 Seher Alvi rated it liked it

I found The movie better than novella because it is quite boring.

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Jun 17, 2018 Clay Davis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A great read with a very good moral to it.

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Jul 28, 2018 Yigal Zur rated it it was amazing

one of the greatesr

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May 31, 2019 Fran rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019-classics, short-stack, classics, introspective

I read this as a parable (of a sort), warning the reader against getting too big for his britches.

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May 17, 2019 Osama Siddique rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

This is such a very strange and often jarring story. Admittedly to be read in its context and seen from the perspective of the two protagonists - as reckless and untamed a pair of Loafers as any - it is nevertheless consistently blatant in its imperialistic aspirations and orientalist outlook. One gathers that many in the West grew up looking upon it as the ultimate adventure story - two audacious men who set out to become kings in an exotic and untamed land called Kafiristan while courting all This is such a very strange and often jarring story. Admittedly to be read in its context and seen from the perspective of the two protagonists - as reckless and untamed a pair of Loafers as any - it is nevertheless consistently blatant in its imperialistic aspirations and orientalist outlook. One gathers that many in the West grew up looking upon it as the ultimate adventure story - two audacious men who set out to become kings in an exotic and untamed land called Kafiristan while courting all manner of peril and if anything making light of it - but it is precious hard to just live with that perspective.

In many ways, the dubious duo of Daniel Dravot & Peachey Carnehan epitomize the East India Company when it comes to their utter amorality and rank vaulting ambition for power, wealth and glory; looking down upon the natives, objectifying them, stereotyping them and holding an intransigent sense of superiority; in promoting toxic policies of divide and rule and making violence more efficient and deadly; and, in using myth, legend and lore to acquire legitimacy for their illegitimate rule. So unless one holds a soft corner for the Company, Empire and the Raj it is hard to sympathize with the duo and lament their horrible fate (which Kipling appears to do). Further, one can also detect instances where Kipling tries to valorize them by dint of their sheer audacity and guts.

In terms of writing style, the early part of the story where the narrator encounters the duo is full of mystery and anticipation and puts forth the rich description and idiom that distinguish Kipling's prose. His was truly a seeing eye when it came to noticing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of moods, places, characters as well as a highly a developed ear for dialects, slang and the hybrid anglo-Indian language and phrases that eventually found its place in Hobson Jobson. However, once the duo sets off on its journey to remotest Afghanistan and coerces and deceives all who it comes across, thereby finding a way to rule over a pagan community which it finds elevated and superior (and by no coincidence also white and therefore almost English), the narrative gets jumpy and awkward. There follow several long rambles over hills and meadows ( with much recruiting, marching and shooting) as well as a highly rambling description of the same.

Much as the story has acquired great traction in popular British imagination and subsequent storytelling and movies (the highlight being the 1975 Technicolor starring Sean Connery and Michael Cane) it is, barring some early passages, a mediocre tale, drably told and highly problematic in terms of its treatment of empire, race, ethnicities and gender. It is definitely Kipling not at his best when it comes to the telling part and at his worst when it comes to its politics. Arguably, what the duo says can be looked upon as distinct from the authorial voice and in some ways Kipling is perhaps not making heroes out of them but just telling a tale or reflecting on the highs and lows and surprising vagaries of life. But I think it is much more complex than that if you dissect the dense text and its various, often commingling, voices. ...more

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Sep 16, 2017 Zella Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, british-history, 19th-century-british-history, 19th-century-british-literature

In the 1880s in British India, former British army sergeants Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan are convinced that the Empire does not properly appreciate their talents, which range from soldiering to smuggling to blackmailing. The two embark on a journey to remote, unexplored Kafiristan, in modern-day Afghanistan/Pakistan. Their retirement plan? Use their skills to convince the locals to hire them as mercenaries, then stage a coup to install themselves as kings so that they can rob the countrysi In the 1880s in British India, former British army sergeants Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan are convinced that the Empire does not properly appreciate their talents, which range from soldiering to smuggling to blackmailing. The two embark on a journey to remote, unexplored Kafiristan, in modern-day Afghanistan/Pakistan. Their retirement plan? Use their skills to convince the locals to hire them as mercenaries, then stage a coup to install themselves as kings so that they can rob the countryside blind. What could possibly go wrong?

For years, my father tried to convince me to watch the 1975 movie The Man Who Would Be King. I didn't get around to it until recently, which now makes me angry at myself because it was a fantastic movie.

Since it is based on a Rudyard Kipling story, I decided to read the original text. It's written in a quaint 19th century style, which I enjoy when I am in the right mood, and for the most part the story is the same as in the movie.

The biggest strength is probably the characters. Danny and Peachy are terrible (but entertaining) people. Kipling's attitude toward colonialism in the story are murky, but it's pretty clear he doesn't condone what they're doing. (Though that's probably more to do with how they're going about it than anything else.)

Nonetheless, the tone isn't preachy, so the story ends up serving as a greater cautionary tale than if Kipling had turned it into a sermon. (Personally, I suspect the message has less to do with colonialism than Freemasonry, but I can't find anyone else talking about that.)

In any event, the story builds to a memorable, haunting ending.

I liked the book, but I honestly think the movie is better. If you haven't seen the movie, you should watch it, even if you don't read the bok. It alters a few things, but the changes work really well. It probably features the best performances of Michael Caine and Sean Connery's careers and manages to be a lot darker, funnier, and more thought-provoking than your standard buddy adventure story. It also has one of the most intense final 15 minutes of any film I've watched. Oh and there are impeccable pith helmets throughout! What more could you want?

...more

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May 08, 2020 Anne Lorena rated it it was ok

what even

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Jan 02, 2013 Lisa rated it liked it

Shelves: c19th, britain

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Man Who Would Be King is nowadays a term signifying grandiose ambition, but it comes from this short story of an ordinary man over-reaching himself. Daniel Dravot is an opportunistic rogue who slips away from the British Raj into the wilds of Afghanistan with his mate Peachey Carnehan. There they set in place their absurd ambition to be kings and with guile and cunning convince the tribesmen of Kafiristan that they are gods. The ruse succeeds until Dravot goes too far, and the girl he demand ...more

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Feb 04, 2020 Caetlin McFadden rated it liked it

it is really difficult to give a review about any work by Kipling because he had so many problematic opinions and, quite frankly, was immensely racist. While keeping this fact in mind, “The Man Who Would Be King,” serves a type of cautionary tale for those who want to create an empire for the sake of power. As both empirical seeking characters meet cruel deaths (which were honestly VERY well deserved) Kipling is creating a story that warns those individuals in the British Empire attempting to tr ...more

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About Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

2,575 followers

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in ...more