Frutto della tarda fioritura kiplinghiana - fioritura come offuscata e relegata in secondo piano dall''eccesso di notorieta procurata allo scrittore dalle sue opere maggiori - questi racconti non mancheranno di sorprendere e sconcertare molti lettori: giocati su una mostruosa tastiera di riferimenti, bagnati di malinconia immortale, spaziano dal Sudafrica che non ha ancora conosciuto la guerra boera all''Antiochia dei primi martiri cristiani, dal Medioevo monastico alle trincee della Grande Guerra.
Reared in the teeming streets of India at the turn of the century, the orphan Kim is the 'Friend of all the World,' an imp with an endless interest in the extraordinary characters he meets daily. One of them, an old Tibetan lama, sets him on the path that will lead him to travel the Great Trunk Road, and become a spy for the British...
Un cuento sobre la amistad entre un elefante y su alocado cuidador, en el que Rudyard Kipling recrea la India colonial, ha sido el elegido por el dibujante José Mª Gallego para narrarlo en imágenes. El rey de las bestias, Moti Guj, trabajador incansable en las plantaciones de cafe, adquiere en las acuarelas de este gran ilustrador tanta o mas humanidad que su amo, al que adora y obedece. Daniel Gascon ha traducido magistralmente este relato publicado por Kipling en su juventud y que sorprende por su agudo sentido del humor y la capacidad para describir en pocas lineas un mundo en el que los hechos mas fantasticos se convierten en verdaderos cuando son contados.
Contents / The God From The Machine / Of Those Called / Private LearoydS Story / The Big Drunk Draf / The Wreck Of The Visigoth / The Solid Muldoon / With The Main Guard / In The Matter Of A Private / Black Jack / Poor Dear Mamma / The World Without / The Tents Of Kedar / With Any Amazement / The Garden Of Eden / Fatima / The Valley Of The Shadow / The Swelling Of Jordan / Dray Wara Yow Dee / The Judgment Of Dungara / At Howli Thana / Gemini / At Twenty-Two / In Flood Time / The Sending Of Dana Da / On The City Wall / The Story Of The Gadsbys / In Black And White
Contains: / How The Whale Got His Throat / How The Camel Got His Hump / How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin / How The Leopard Got His Spots / The Elephants Child / The Sing-Song Of Old Man Kangaroo / The Beginning Of The Armadillos / How The First Letter Was Written / How The Alphabet Was Made / The Crab That Played With The Sea / The Cat That Walked By Himself / The Butterfly That Stamped
Contents: / The Phantom Rickshaw / My Own True Ghost Story / The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes / The Man Who Would Be King / "The Finest Story in The World"
First published in 1888, "Plain Tales from the Hills" was Kiplings first volume of prose fiction. Most of the stories it includes had already appeared in the Civil and Military Gazette and they were written before Kipling reached the age of 22, showing already a remarkably precocious literary talent. This vignettes of life in British India a hundred years ago give vivid insight into Anglo-India at work and play, into a barrack-room life, and into the character of Indians themselves.
