Word: kiplinger
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By focusing on the political aspects of Kipling's career - in particular, his role as imperial cheerleader and later as a Cassandra of national decline - David Gilmour stakes out a distinctive position. Based on extensive research, The Long Recessional is stylishly written, enjoyable to read and occasionally revelatory. But whether...
Another book about Rudyard Kipling - nearly 50 are listed in the bibliography of The Long Recessional (John Murray; 351 pages) - needs to be exceptional to succeed. The first biography of this icon of the British Empire was published in 1900 when Kipling was 34. Ever since, a steady stream of...
According to a bbc poll Gilmour cites, Kipling's famous ode to self-improvement, If, remains Britain's favorite poem. His verse and stories about the British in India still largely determine how the Brits think of that era. His lifelong interest in the country's military transformed its reputation...
But as Gilmour underlines in this essentially sympathetic portrait, Kipling had a darker side. Subsequent generations have found many of his political, racial and sexual attitudes cynically distasteful. He was a world champion hater who found it impossible to forgive and engaged in numerous ferocious vendettas, not least against liberals...
Today, a century after his heyday, it is hard to grasp the immense influence Kipling wielded through his words and images. Mark Twain described him as "the only living person not head of a nation, whose voice is heard around the world the moment it drops a remark." It's...