The Literary Gothic | Rudyard Kipling

Kipling, Rudyard

30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936

Best known today as (1) the literary champion of late Victorian imperialism and (2) early content provider for Disney animation studios (that is, author of children's stories such as The Jungle Book and Just-So Stories, among others), Kipling also had some interest in the supernatural. Points one and two pretty much mitigate against him being taken very seriously these days, which is a shame given the craftsmanship of his work, although some people still regard his work (think especially Plain Tales from the Hills this link opens a new browser window

) and Kim this link opens a new browser window

) as some of the more insightful, from a European perspective and for its time, regarding the Indian subcontinent and its inhabitants. Kipling's ghostly tales evince a powerful interest in the psychological, and their subtlety and indirection can be quite impressive. It's not Henry James, but it's closer than you might think, and a heck of a lot more fun....

Sites:

The Kipling Society this link opens a new window

The place to go for all things Kipling; includes biographical information, a chronology, bibliographies, and more, including helpful discussions of many of Kipling's works.

Biographical essay

This site includes links to discussions of some of Kipling's works; while dealing with entire volumes, some of those discussions single out some of Kipling's Gothic tales. [Douglas Kerr, U Hong Kong; Literary Encyclopedia]

Kipling Overview

Contains biographical essays, a chronology, and assorted other goodies of the sort usually found at this excellent site. [Victorian Web, Brown U]

Biographical note

[The Authors Calendar]

Biographical note

Part of the PBS website for the 2000 Masterpiece Theatre production of E. Nesbit's classic The Railway Children.

Brief biographical note

[Peter Landry, Biographies]

Brief biographical note

[Biography.com]

Kipling page at the Nobel Prize Internet Archive this link opens a new browser window

Yes, Kipling won the Nobel Prize for lit in 1907; check out the reasons given.... This site also includes a brief biographical note.

Kipling page

Includes a biographical note and other materials. [Stavan Parikh]

Biography

[Dmitry Karshtedt, at Edward Bonver's Poetry Lover's Page]

Kipling page

[Sourendu Gupta, The Mumbai Pages]

Kipling Hyper-Concordance

Part of the The Victorian Literary Studies Archive, this concordance allows you to search etexts by Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling bibliography

Supernaturalist bibliography with book cover images. [Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Tartarus Press]

Portraits

[National Portrait Gallery, London]

click the cover image for more info from Amazon.com

Etexts:

"The Bisara of Pooree" [4 March 1887]

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at Farid Hajji
- as part of The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.
-- Discussion of this tale [Kipling Society]

"The Broken-Link Handicap" [6 April 1887]

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
-- Discussion of this tale. [Kipling Society]

"Bubbling Well Road"

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at Bibliomania

"At the End of the Passage"

- at Mitsuharu Matsuoka's site, Nagoya U (42K)
- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at HorrorMasters [PDF; not printable]
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StudyGuide for this story a LitGothic etext

-- see also "Optograms and Fiction: Photo in a Dead Man's Eye" by Arthur B. Evans, which discusses Kipling's story, among others.

"The Finest Story in the World"

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at HorrorMasters [PDF]
- as part of The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories, a Project Gutenberg etext (272K or zipped version 103K); also available in the massive collection The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.

"Haunted Subalterns"

- at 4 Literature
- at OpenDB.network
- as one of the tales in the massive collection The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.

"In the House of Suddhoo" [30 April 1886]

Originally titled "Section 420, I. P. C."

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at Classic Reader
- at BlackMask: HTML (17K) or PDF
- as one of the tales in Stories by Modern English Authors, a Project Gutenberg etext (727K or zipped version 273K). The individual tales in this volume are not available as separate files, so you'll need to use your browser's search function.
-- Discussion of this tale. [Kipling Society]

"The House Surgeon"

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- as one of the tales in Kipling's collection Action and Reaction, a Project Gutenberg etext (409K or zipped version 158K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.

This edition contains many of the tales listed at left

"The Lost Legion"

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- as one of the tales in Kipling's collection Soldiers Three, a Project Gutenberg etext (384K or zipped version 151K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.

"A Madonna of the Trenches"

- Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
-- Discussion of this tale. [Kipling Society]

"The Mark of the Beast" [12 July 1890]

A powerfully disturbing tale, a sort of Indian subcontinent werewolf riff, with implications resonant with Kipling's enduring interest in the impact of colonialism on both colonized and colonizer.

- at Bibliomania
- at HorrorMasters (PDF)
- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]

"My Own True Ghost Story" [2 February 1888]

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at HorrorMasters [PDF]
- at Bibliomania
- as part of Stories by Modern English Authors, a Project Gutenberg etext (727K or zipped version 273K); also as part of The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories, a Project Gutenberg etext (272K or zipped version 103K); also as part of the massive collection The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). In all cases, use your browser's find function.
-- Discussion of this story. [Kipling Society]

"The Phantom Rickshaw"

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at Short Story Classics
- at HorrorMasters (PDF)
- as part of The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories, a Project Gutenberg etext (272K or zipped version 103K); also available as one of the tales in the massive collection The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.

"The Return of Imray"

- at Bibliomania
- at Horrormasters (PDF)

"They" [1904]

Kipling is believed to be the first English author who owned an automobile, so this may be the first ghost story in which an automobile appears (albeit in a fairly minor way). This is also arguably Kipling's best ghost story, and one that has some interesting parallels (or inverse parallels, if that makes any sense) with other "ghostly children" ghost tales: think Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" or the "forlorn child" ghost stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman — or even, dare I say it, Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw."

- at Gaslight (52K)
- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]

"Tomlinson" [23 January 1892]

- at Lit of the Fantastic
- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- as part of the massive The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.
-- Discussion of this poem. [Kipling Society]

"The Wish House" [October 1924]

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
-- Discussion of this tale. [Kipling Society]

"By Word of Mouth" [10 June 1887]

- at Words [Russell Tayler, Newcastle U, Australia]
- at HorrorMasters (PDF; not printable)
- as one of the tales in the massive collection The Works of Rudyard Kipling, One Volume Edition, a Project Gutenberg etext (1.85MB or zipped version 698K). Use your browser's "Find" function to locate.
-- Discussion of this tale. [Kipling Society]

Discussion:

rudyard-kipling

"To exchange information and views on the life and work of the author Rudyard Kipling."