The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney

by Rudyard Kipling

“The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney” is one of the best-known short stories written by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). It was first published in 1890.

Mulvaney is a English soldier serving in India. One day, he and his friends want to drink and have fun, but they have no money. So they decide to blackmail another Englishman, who makes money defrauding natives. However, all they can take him is a palanquin, which will lead them to Benares, where their adventures will begin…

This edition also contains a biographical profile of Kipling written by Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) in 1891.

102 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2013

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

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here we have a continuation in the short stories that Kipling wrote loosely entitled ‘The Three Musketeers’ series. I am not entirely too sure why he didn’t just make this compilation into a book and have done with it that way. All in all though, I do find, as these stories progress over time, they definitely do get much better within themselves. The more I have read of these specific stories, the more I feel that the issue is, Kipling is an Indian based writer and expert, he is trying to write stories in the style and dialect of a person and or people from Yorkshire, thousands of miles away on the other side of the earth. It is this that becomes noticeable, the style, language, lingo in part isn’t fully there, and, when you get into the story, the language is rough, hard to read and get through, thus making the story rather a tedious and difficult one to read and therefore thus diminishes the enjoyment of the story/ novel itself.

[Jenifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another far-flung, exotic tale. I liked the language of the three men in this one and the cleverness of the plot. Other than that, not much.

included in "The Golden Argosy" edited by Cartmell and Grayson

[David Highton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of drunken soldiers in India