Stories and Poems

First published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series, this comprehensive selection of Kipling's stories and poems covers the full range of his career. It displays Kipling's comic mastery as well as his bleak insights into human behaviour, from the days of British India to the aftermath of the First World War. With Introduction and full notes.

''Hear and attend and listen...''Rudyard Kipling is a supreme master of the short story in English and a poet of brilliant gifts. His energy and inventiveness poured themselves into every kind of tale, from the bleakest of fables to the richest of comedies, and he illuminated every aspect of human behaviour, of which he was a fascinated (and sometimes appalled) observer. This generous selection of stories and poems, first published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series, covers the full range of Kipling''s career from the youthful volumes that brought him fame as the chronicler of British India, to the bittersweet fruits of age and bereavement in the aftermath of the First World War. It includes stories such as ''The Man who would be King'', ''Mrs Bathurst'', and ''Mary Postgate'', and poems from Barrack-Room Ballads and other collections. In his introduction and notes Daniel Karlin addresses the controversial political engagement of Kipling''s art, and the sources of its imaginative power.