Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Graham Greene, the West, and Human Factors
- 2 Imperialism and Sentiment: Paul Scott's Raj Quartet and the Mountbattens
- 3 Forster's Views on Race and Class and Moral Imperatives
- 4 Kipling on Goodness and the Great Game
- 5 Political Perspectives and Moral Fervour in Joseph Conrad
- 6 Henry James on Personal Relations: Looking Beneath and Beyond
- 7 The Heroic Vitalism of D. H. Lawrence
- 8 James Joyce and the Life of Dubliners
- 9 Evelyn Waugh and the City of Aquatint
- 10 Virginia Woolf and Time's Chariot
- 11 Robert Graves' Sense of History
- 12 Christopher Isherwood and Berlin in Decline
- 13 Aldous Huxley and the Dangers of a World Without Ideas
- 14 Somerset Maugham and the Strengths of Simplicity
- 15 Agatha Christie and the Magic of Murder
- 16 Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes
- 17 Galsworthy and Social and Sexual Transition
- 18 The Unchanging World of P. G. Wodehouse
- 19 Frank Richards and the Preposterous Excesses of Billy Bunter
- 20 John Buchan and a Life beyond Letters
- 21 Richmal crompton's William and the Charms of the Unorthodox
- 22 Edith Nesbit and the Pleasures of Childhood
- 23 The Excessive Vitalism of Bernard Shaw
- 24 The Melancholia of Katherine Mansfield
- 25 J. M. Barrie and the Boy Who Never Grew Up
- 26 Kenneth Grahame's Singular Mr Toad
- 27 The Wicked Worlds of George Orwell
- 28 Enid Blyton's Evocations of Britain
- 29 Tolkien and the Pursuit and Achievement of Power
- 30 Transitions in the Worlds of C. S. Lewis
- 31 Noël Coward and the Games People Play
- 32 Rattigan's Sensitivities
- 33 Lawrence Durrell and the Uses of Sexuality
- 34 Anthony Powell and the Hollow Heart of the New England
- 35 Angus Wilson and the Pursuit of Values
- 36 William Golding and the Limits of Civilization
- 37 Anthony Burgess and the Energy of the Outsider
- 38 The Ineffable Angst of Samuel Beckett
- 39 Pinter and the Politics of Literature
- 40 Ian Fleming's Establishment and its Guardian
- 41 Le Carré's Hard-pressed Concept of Honour
- 42 Beyond Shadows – Naipaul's Brilliant Bad Temper
- 43 Muriel Spark and Remembrances of Mortality
- 44 The Bizarre Worlds of J. G. Ballard
- 45 Simon Raven's Extravagant Decency
- 46 Salman Rushdie's Magic
- 47 Vikram Seth's Romanticism
- 48 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Pictures of Past and Present
- 49 The Relentless Anguish of Kazuo Ishiguro
- 50 Gerald Durrell's Human Zoos
- 51 T. E. Lawrence and the Limits of Commitment
4 - Kipling on Goodness and the Great Game
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Graham Greene, the West, and Human Factors
- 2 Imperialism and Sentiment: Paul Scott's Raj Quartet and the Mountbattens
- 3 Forster's Views on Race and Class and Moral Imperatives
- 4 Kipling on Goodness and the Great Game
- 5 Political Perspectives and Moral Fervour in Joseph Conrad
- 6 Henry James on Personal Relations: Looking Beneath and Beyond
- 7 The Heroic Vitalism of D. H. Lawrence
- 8 James Joyce and the Life of Dubliners
- 9 Evelyn Waugh and the City of Aquatint
- 10 Virginia Woolf and Time's Chariot
- 11 Robert Graves' Sense of History
- 12 Christopher Isherwood and Berlin in Decline
- 13 Aldous Huxley and the Dangers of a World Without Ideas
- 14 Somerset Maugham and the Strengths of Simplicity
- 15 Agatha Christie and the Magic of Murder
- 16 Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes
- 17 Galsworthy and Social and Sexual Transition
- 18 The Unchanging World of P. G. Wodehouse
- 19 Frank Richards and the Preposterous Excesses of Billy Bunter
- 20 John Buchan and a Life beyond Letters
- 21 Richmal crompton's William and the Charms of the Unorthodox
- 22 Edith Nesbit and the Pleasures of Childhood
- 23 The Excessive Vitalism of Bernard Shaw
- 24 The Melancholia of Katherine Mansfield
- 25 J. M. Barrie and the Boy Who Never Grew Up
- 26 Kenneth Grahame's Singular Mr Toad
- 27 The Wicked Worlds of George Orwell
- 28 Enid Blyton's Evocations of Britain
- 29 Tolkien and the Pursuit and Achievement of Power
- 30 Transitions in the Worlds of C. S. Lewis
- 31 Noël Coward and the Games People Play
- 32 Rattigan's Sensitivities
- 33 Lawrence Durrell and the Uses of Sexuality
- 34 Anthony Powell and the Hollow Heart of the New England
- 35 Angus Wilson and the Pursuit of Values
- 36 William Golding and the Limits of Civilization
- 37 Anthony Burgess and the Energy of the Outsider
- 38 The Ineffable Angst of Samuel Beckett
- 39 Pinter and the Politics of Literature
- 40 Ian Fleming's Establishment and its Guardian
- 41 Le Carré's Hard-pressed Concept of Honour
- 42 Beyond Shadows – Naipaul's Brilliant Bad Temper
- 43 Muriel Spark and Remembrances of Mortality
- 44 The Bizarre Worlds of J. G. Ballard
- 45 Simon Raven's Extravagant Decency
- 46 Salman Rushdie's Magic
- 47 Vikram Seth's Romanticism
- 48 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Pictures of Past and Present
- 49 The Relentless Anguish of Kazuo Ishiguro
- 50 Gerald Durrell's Human Zoos
- 51 T. E. Lawrence and the Limits of Commitment
Summary
A series on twentieth century classics that has concentrated thus far on writers on the colonies would clearly be deficient if it did not deal early on with Rudyard Kipling. He was the first British writer who made his name by writing about India, and is still, I think, one of the most instructive. Of course he began writing in the nineteenth century, and had, in fact, long left India behind as a subject by the time the last century began. Still, he continues to be known best for his Indian writings, the short story collection Plain Tales from the Hills, with which he made his name, The Jungle Book, the strangely wistful poetry, notably ‘The Road to Mandalay’ and ‘Gunga Din’, and of course, his masterpiece, Kim, which is in fact of the new century.
Understandably enough, given the time at which he wrote, he was not an analyst of the colonial experience, as Forster and Scott were, or Joyce Cary for Africa, whom I had to read up hastily when I was asked to teach a course on Colonial Literature when I began working at Peradeniya. The contrast between the presentation of the two situations made clear what Scott enunciated so forcefully, when he talked at the very beginning of The Jewel in the Crown, the first book of the Quartet, of the long embrace between India and Britain,
an imperial embrace of such long standing and subtlety it was no longer possible for them to know whether they hated or loved one another, or what it was that held them together and seemed to have confused the image of their separate destinies.
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- Twentieth Century ClassicsReflections on Writers and their Times, pp. 23 - 26Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2013