The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling

Published by Oxford University Press: Great Britain, 1992 (1987).
First published in 1894 (The First Jungle Book) and 1895 (The Second Jungle Book).

I probably could have broken this "book" in half, considering that it consists of both "The First Jungle Book" and "The Second Jungle Book", but as both Jungle Books are really just a collection of short stories - many of which (though far from all) are about Mowgli - they work together as one larger collection.

Though, considering the whole collection as one book did mean I messed up my reading challenge slightly (see the previous entry).

What surprised me about the Jungle Books as a whole is that there are so many non Mowgli stories. We get a tale about a mongoose, a few from the perspective of humans that can't talk to animals, and even a few set in the Arctic region - which really stretches the idea of "jungle"...! Each of them feels a little like a folk tale or fable, and apparently some of the stories are based on older stories (which gave me justification to use this book for the reading challenge). Each chapter also opens and closes with short poems, written by Kipling but usually attributed to a character from the attached story.

Of course, the Mowgli stories include the most well-known characters: Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Khan among them, yet some of these characters are very different to the Disneyfied versions I was used to. Baloo is less laissez faire than his animated counterpart, and Kaa is actually an ally of Mowgli, albeit one that the other animals are a little afraid of. Shere Khan, the 'big bad' of the movie versions, is a great antagonist, but is actually killed off by Mowgli on his third appearance, still halfway through book 1! He does appear again in stories set in an earlier time period, but his presence certainly doesn't "lurk in the background" as it does in the movie versions.

Yes, Mowgli kills Shere Khan, and that demonstrates the main differences between later adaptations (except maybe Andy Serkis's version, which I haven't seen) and the original stories: these stories aren't afraid to get violent! After killing Shere Khan, Mowgli decides not to spill blood except to eat, yet he also must on occasion bend that rule - at one point even helping to wipe out a whole pack of wild dogs that are invading the jungle; it is definitely a dog eat dog world!

The stories were enjoyable - I can see why they are popular - but there were also quite slow-paced. This may be the reason why it took me so long to get through. They do also feel quite of their time in patches.

Completed 27 February 2025.

Previous Book ~ Next Book


(2025 Book Challenge - "Folklore/Legends")

Previous Book ~ Next Book

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Image
Published by Tom Doherty Associates Books/TOR Fantasy: New York, 2014. Book 2 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by ' The Way of Kings .' Followed by (spin-off) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer. ' Well, I finally read the second Stormlight book, this one even longer than the last  at a whopping 1080 pages, and once again found myself enjoying Sanderson's world immensely. The plot does take longer than strictly necessary in places - particularly in the storyline following Shallan Davar as she journeys towards the Shattered Plains - but overall is still a page-turner. By the middle of Words of Radiance our three main characters (Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin) are finally in the same location, something that was never achieved in the first book. In keeping them apart for so long, Sanderson is able to give his readers a real understanding of what makes each character tick, and this becomes quite interesting as when these character...
Read more

The Last Battle - CS Lewis

Image
Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian ";  "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ;  "The Silver Chair" ; "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1956. The final book in the Narnia series, The Last Battle appropriates covers the events leading up to and surrounding the end of Narnia itself. The last king of Narnia, Tirian, and his close friend, the unicorn Jewel, enlist the help of Eustace and Jill to do battle against a "false Aslan" and an army of Calormenes. The book is different from the remainder of the Narnia series (aside from The Horse and His Boy ) in that it begins in Narnia, following Narnians, with no one from 'our' world arriving until quite a way in to the book. Even when they do ...
Read more

The Client - John Grisham

Image
Published by Arrow/Random House: Australia, 1993. I quite like John Grisham novels. I like the fact that I can pick one up and enjoy it without having to think too deeply. Not that John Grisham novels are 'simple' in any way, but there is a reason that so many of his works have been adapted into action/thriller films (this book included): they read like a film. The Client follows the story of Mark Sway, whom, along with his younger brother Ricky, witnesses the suicide of a lawyer whose client was a violent mafia member. The mafia member, Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, has killed a US senator and hidden his body somewhere. The FBI know he did it, but cannot find the body. Mark, however, has learned where the body is hidden, and is now a target both for the FBI (who want him to talk) and the mafia (who want him silenced permanently). Mark is eleven years old, and although he is very mature for his age (he has witnessed a lot in his time that has made him grow up too quickly) ...
Read more