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A review by duffypratt
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
4.0
I can hardly believe I did not read this book as a kid, and really all I knew of Kipling are a few poems and quotations, and his reputation (which may very well be undeserved) for being an obnoxious imperialist. I'm going to have to scold my parents the next time I see them. How could this not have been in my kids library?
Frankly the stories here are a mixed bag, but the best of them are quite wonderful. I especially liked the opening story, the tale of Mowgli being kidnapped by the Bander Log, The White Seal, and Rikki Tiki Tavi. Any one of these would be enough to boost up an otherwise OK collection. With these four, I think the book is very good indeed.
I came to this book through Gaiman's Graveyard Book, and I think its quite fun to compare the two and to see how cleverly Gaiman transformed these stories, refreshed them, and used them sometimes to fairly altered purposes. The Bander Log, for example, are the ghouls in the Graveyard Book. But in The Jungle Book, its pretty clear that Kipling is making fun of democracy. The Bander Log are fond of saying that they know they are right because they all agree with each other. Gaiman has the ghouls be equally self important, but because they give themselves important titles, in contrast to Bod, who is Nobody. He's making fun of aristocracy. For these comparisons alone, I might go ahead and read the second jungle book.
I really enjoyed almost all of the poems, which frame each story. They convey such a pure joy for language itself.
Finally, I should say that I've never seen the Disney cartoon (or if I did, I don't remember it at all), and I count that as a blessing. Apart from the Graveyard Book, I came to this with almost no expectation at all (aside from the bad stuff I've heard about Rudyard).
Frankly the stories here are a mixed bag, but the best of them are quite wonderful. I especially liked the opening story, the tale of Mowgli being kidnapped by the Bander Log, The White Seal, and Rikki Tiki Tavi. Any one of these would be enough to boost up an otherwise OK collection. With these four, I think the book is very good indeed.
I came to this book through Gaiman's Graveyard Book, and I think its quite fun to compare the two and to see how cleverly Gaiman transformed these stories, refreshed them, and used them sometimes to fairly altered purposes. The Bander Log, for example, are the ghouls in the Graveyard Book. But in The Jungle Book, its pretty clear that Kipling is making fun of democracy. The Bander Log are fond of saying that they know they are right because they all agree with each other. Gaiman has the ghouls be equally self important, but because they give themselves important titles, in contrast to Bod, who is Nobody. He's making fun of aristocracy. For these comparisons alone, I might go ahead and read the second jungle book.
I really enjoyed almost all of the poems, which frame each story. They convey such a pure joy for language itself.
Finally, I should say that I've never seen the Disney cartoon (or if I did, I don't remember it at all), and I count that as a blessing. Apart from the Graveyard Book, I came to this with almost no expectation at all (aside from the bad stuff I've heard about Rudyard).