Actions and Reactions: Actions and Reactions

by Rudyard Kipling

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories, English Literature, Classics, India

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

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 the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

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."

Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A selection of short stories by Kipling, along with a poem loosely related to each story.

I am looking for the positives in this book, but coming up short of a way to talk it up. Most of it was terrible. As I detest poetry, there was, in fairness, never any hope for that, but of the stories, only one stood out.

That story was Garm - a Hostage. A story about a dog, set in India. I enjoyed that story a lot. It was a four star read. Of all the other stories they felt incredibly dated, and despite no small effort, I failed to enjoy any of them enough to persist with reading them. That says a lot, as I will generally carry on with even a mediocre story to the end, even though I often regret it.

Some I simply couldn't understand (With the Night Mail, The Puzzler) others just didn't go anywhere fast enough (Little Foxes, The House Surgeon, A Deal in Cotton).

I can't go beyond two stars.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve wanted to read this for quite a while because of With The Night Mail which I read about while researching What Your Children are Doing on the Information Highway back in the early nineties. All I knew about the short story was:

In the time of the Wright brothers, Rudyard Kipling wrote With the Night Mail, a story about a world in which air flight turned the Atlantic into little more than a pond. He envisioned a world in which the oceans were no longer a barrier to fast and easy travel. In other words, he envisioned that future as it became. But he also envisioned an all-encompassing ‘Aerial Board of Control’ which usurped powers from local governments, partially because of the importance of air travel to commerce, but also because air travel had so shrunk the world that major governments became minor powers.

And that is basically true, although governments had shrunk so much that this aspect of the world didn’t even figure into the story, but only into a minor snippet in the supporting material. It’s a very nuts-and-bolts story, done up as an industry newsletter for flyers. This makes it even stranger than your average so-called hard-science story from the early days of science fiction—which this predated, having been published in 1909.

From the 18-second mile to the height that air travel occurs at, Kipling got almost all of the technical details wrong, both in flight and in government, but he understood the nature of man and progress:

So far, we can drag out the dawn to twice its normal length in these latitudes. But some day—even on the Equator—we shall hold the Sun level in his full stride.

He knew to never bet against technological progress. We’ll always go faster and higher tomorrow.

The stories in this collection are all very different from each other; With the Night Mail is the only science fiction; then there’s a fantasy story about a haunted house almost done as a detective story, and in the less-haunted genre, a couple moves into a old manor-house and discovers that the ties of land and blood are stronger than the travels of man. Both An Habitation Enforced and Garm—A Hostage make it clear that if you never fail in your duty you’ll have no trouble.

And that you can’t get out of your responsibility to the future, which is contained in your past.

One of the better and most amazing stories is The Mother Hive, also about responsibility, and echoing many of the sentiments Kipling put into The Gods of the Copybook Headings. He describes life in a beehive that shows what they mean in a tale that is eerily familiar to the news we read every day.

Some of the sound bees warned them that ill-gotten gains never prosper, but the Oddities at once surrounded them and balled them to death. That was a punishment they were almost as fond of as they were of eating, and they expected the sound bees to feed them.

“Tell us all about your feelings,” says the Wax-moth to the bees, to convince them not to listen to their economists. The wax-moth and its buzzing acolytes ridicule those who complain that if no one gathers honey, the stores of honey in the hive will run out. You don’t understand the “economic simplicity”, they say. So that ultimately,

…the sound bees never mentioned these matters. They knew, if they did, the Oddities would hold a meeting and ball them to death.

Nowadays they’d twitter them out of a job.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This is Kipling's collection of short stories that I've most liked (I think I've read them all, except "Land & Sea Tales," 1923).

Esta es la segunda vez que leo este libro, pero cuatro de sus historias (las mejores) has sido antologizadas y ya las he leído cuatro o cinco veces.

The best stories, in my opinion, are "An habitation enforced" and also "Little foxes", where Kipling attacks those who attack the British Empire. "The Mother Hive" is a good parody of destructive leftism, totally applicable today. "The house surgeon" is an excellent tale of ghosts, a genre in which Kipling wrote some of his best stories. "Garm, a Hostage" is one of the best in the series "Soldiers three", furthermore one of the easiest to follow. There is even a story from the "Stalky & Co" series.

ESPAÑOL: Esta es la colección de cuentos de longitud media de Kipling que más me ha gustado (creo haberlas leído todas, excepto "Land & Sea Tales", 1923).

This is the second time I've read this book, but four of its stories (the best ones) have been anthologized and I've read them four or five times in all.

Las mejores historias, en mi opinión, son "An habitation enforced" y también "Little foxes", donde Kipling ataca a los que atacan al Imperio Británico. "The Mother Hive" es una buena parodia del izquierdismo disolvente, totalmente aplicable hoy día. "The house surgeon" es un excelente cuento de fantasmas, género en el que Kipling escribió algunas de sus mejores historias. "Garm, a Hostage" es una de las mejores de la serie "Soldiers three", de las más fáciles de seguir. Incluso hay un cuento de la serie de "Stalky & Co".

[Gene Georgelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I do enjoy his stories, I am not mechanically inclined to understand some of them.

[Terry Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good stories in this book but a couple are basically unintelligible. There’s some rough sledding in spots but it’s a worthwhile read.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Rudyard Kipling and think his Jungle Books and animal stories (especially Rikki-Tikki-Tavi) are amazing.

Actions and Reactions is well-written but filled with references to Colonial governing and bygone Britishisms that are hard to fathom these days.

Additionally, there are some odd psuedo-advertisements and flight logs about dirigibles that make a person wonder why they were written in the first place.

Still, I enjoyed my time reading this book- but would unhesitatingly recommend the abovementioned over it.

[Aditya Mallya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a scattershot collection of stories and poems that really have nothing in common with each other. Most of these come from Kipling's earlier years, so some of the stories are good, a couple are awfully boring and most are decent. Not an ideal introduction to the writer, but by no means a waste of time.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the style of writing the language used and the story's themselves difficult to read or grasp hold of. Some of these stories seem to have no point or ending. As an introduction to Kipling I would not recommend it. Although you get glimpses of a time long past the tales are not enjoyable.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good writing and story material

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actions and Reactions, first published in 1909, is a collection of 8 short stories alternating with 8 poems. The short stories are quite random, not following any particular theme that I could make out. They are not particularly unique, as most of them have appeared in a number of other collections. Nonetheless, an enjoyable collection of very typical Kipling. As an added bonus, my 1924 Macmillan & Co edition sports a cover featuring an elephants head next to an infamous good luck symbol from those far off times, a real blast from the past.