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The City of a Dreadful Night
Sleepless on a hot August night, the narrator sets off towards Lahore City. The moon blazes down onto sleeping men, lying like corpses. A restless child stirs on a rooftop, and is stilled by its mother. Through the Delhi Gate he enters the walled city, where it seems even hotter and more stifling. He hears men talking and pulling at their hookahs, and a shopkeeper balancing his books behind the shutters. At the Mosque of Wazir Khan he climbs a dark stair to a minaret high above the moonlit city. A muezzin gives his splendid cry to prayer, briefly rousing the sleeping men. As the narrator makes his way home in the dawn, a woman's corpse is carried down to the burning ghat. The city was of Death as well as Night.
- GenresFictionLiteratureHorror
172 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 1885
About the author
Rudyard Kipling
7,435 books3,778 followersJoseph 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 26, 2021
Kipling non mi delude mai!
December 10, 2022
So, let's start off by making things clear. "The City of Dreadful Night" by Kipling can refer to three things:
1. A short story written in about 1885
2. A collection of essays published in 1888
3. One of the essays in in the above book
The story is okay. Nothing special, just a slightly creepy, dark vignette set in Lahore.
The essays, however, are literally the worst of Kipling. They're little more than racist, white supremacist rants about Calcutta and his dislike of educated Indians. He rants on and on like a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving about how the white men are trying to bring light and civilization to India, but all their efforts are thwarted by Indians. Absolutely not recommended.
1. A short story written in about 1885
2. A collection of essays published in 1888
3. One of the essays in in the above book
The story is okay. Nothing special, just a slightly creepy, dark vignette set in Lahore.
The essays, however, are literally the worst of Kipling. They're little more than racist, white supremacist rants about Calcutta and his dislike of educated Indians. He rants on and on like a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving about how the white men are trying to bring light and civilization to India, but all their efforts are thwarted by Indians. Absolutely not recommended.
August 25, 2021
While I found this story in a collection of Horror stories I can’t say it falls into that genre at all.
It’s more an observation on a city where something bad has clearly happened and continues to happen but the way the story plays out it just seems like some sort of disease sweeping through the city, which hits a reader differently right now.
So it wasn’t what I was expecting going by the title but it was not terrible.
It’s more an observation on a city where something bad has clearly happened and continues to happen but the way the story plays out it just seems like some sort of disease sweeping through the city, which hits a reader differently right now.
So it wasn’t what I was expecting going by the title but it was not terrible.
April 20, 2014
loved it
July 24, 2023
A breathtaking and vividly narrated dark and difficult read.
[Rudyard Kipling, indianexpress.com.]
Rudyard Kipling`s The City of Dreadful Night. First published in 1885.
"The dense wet heat that hung over the face of land, like a blanket, prevented all hope of sleep in the first instance."
This story contains the observations of an Indian hot summer nighttime in the city of Lahore. The writing is so good that the reader feels as if they are walking along with the narrator, and looking through their eyes and senses. It is so hot, that the narrator is feeling sleepless and goes on a walk towards the city of Lahore.
**
The heated air and the heavy earth had driven the very dead upward for coolness sake.
*
The mat-weaver's hut under the lee of the Hindu temple was full of sleeping men who lay like sheeted corpses.
*
...for even the children of the soil found it too hot to weep.
*
"I bear witness that there is no God but God."
**
[Rudyard Kipling, indianexpress.com.]
Rudyard Kipling`s The City of Dreadful Night. First published in 1885.
"The dense wet heat that hung over the face of land, like a blanket, prevented all hope of sleep in the first instance."
This story contains the observations of an Indian hot summer nighttime in the city of Lahore. The writing is so good that the reader feels as if they are walking along with the narrator, and looking through their eyes and senses. It is so hot, that the narrator is feeling sleepless and goes on a walk towards the city of Lahore.
**
The heated air and the heavy earth had driven the very dead upward for coolness sake.
*
The mat-weaver's hut under the lee of the Hindu temple was full of sleeping men who lay like sheeted corpses.
*
...for even the children of the soil found it too hot to weep.
*
"I bear witness that there is no God but God."
**
March 17, 2023
The author's guided (and guarded) trawl through the surfeit humanity and miasma crammed into the Calcutta slums during the occupation.
Kipling's first published work is an unmasked insight into the nature of the man and his unfortunate politics reporting upon his visit to Calcutta lacking any of the insight and empathy shown by other authors, Kipling stays aloof and judgemental weighting his documentation of what he sees with his naivety and privilege without ever managing to overcome himself and understand the causes of the misery before him.
He also misappropriates several verses from the James Thomson poem of the same name.
Kipling's first published work is an unmasked insight into the nature of the man and his unfortunate politics reporting upon his visit to Calcutta lacking any of the insight and empathy shown by other authors, Kipling stays aloof and judgemental weighting his documentation of what he sees with his naivety and privilege without ever managing to overcome himself and understand the causes of the misery before him.
He also misappropriates several verses from the James Thomson poem of the same name.
November 8, 2024
//read for a class
you remember that meme: 'samajh nahi aya, par sun kar acha laga' this. this is that meme, except na samajh aaya, na padh kar acha laga, lekin kintu parantu sam dham dhandh bhedh kar padh liya mashallah
i'd give it lower except i thought maybe it deserves another shot once i am done with the class. maybe i just wasnt in the right mindframe. and these are short stories, afterall? what would i lose to give it another try.
you remember that meme: 'samajh nahi aya, par sun kar acha laga' this. this is that meme, except na samajh aaya, na padh kar acha laga, lekin kintu parantu sam dham dhandh bhedh kar padh liya mashallah
i'd give it lower except i thought maybe it deserves another shot once i am done with the class. maybe i just wasnt in the right mindframe. and these are short stories, afterall? what would i lose to give it another try.
September 8, 2018
For me, this is another superb story by Kipling. It is very similar in style to James Joyce Ulysses. The story of a (presumably) mans wandering around a city in India. For anyone who has spent time in and travelled through (like I have) towns and cities in India, this will be pure joy. The short, but simple like about the Indian Heat brought a huge smile to my face.
Read
July 3, 2021A breathtaking story.
May 30, 2023
this was incredibly racist wow
February 7, 2026
Atmospheric writing, describing the stifling Indian heat around a Lahore mosque. The wider collection consists of eight essays in which Kipling shows his distaste for Calcutta and the Bengalis who dwell there.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews