Rudyard Kipling was
one of the most popular writers of his era, and his novel Kim,
first published in 1901, has become one of his most well-known non-juvenile
works.
The novel takes place
at a time contemporary to the book's publication; its setting is India under
the British Empire. The title character is a boy of Irish descent who is
orphaned and grows up independently in the streets of India, taken care of by a
"half-caste" woman, a keeper of an opium den. Kim, an energetic and playful
character, although full-blooded Irish, grows up as a "native" and
acquires the ability to seamlessly blend into the many ethnic and religious
groups of the Indian subcontinent. When he meets a wandering Tibetan lama who
is in search of a sacred river, Kim becomes his follower and proceeds on a
journey covering the whole of India. Kipling's account of Kim's travels
throughout the subcontinent gave him opportunity to describe the many peoples
and cultures that made up India, and a significant portion of the novel is
devoted to such descriptions, which have been both lauded as magical and
visionary and derided as stereotypical and imperialistic.
Kim is presently
recognized upon his travels, reclaimed and adopted by the Irish regiment of
which his father had been color sergeant, and given a genteel sufficiency of
education in a Catholic college. He endures the thralldom of St. Xavier's,
however, only upon condition of being allowed still to tramp the continent in
the long vacation with his beloved old Buddhist priest. Before he is done with
school the remarkable fitness for employment in the secret Indian service of
the English government is discovered by our old friend Colonel Creighton, and
he is placed under the tuition of sundry wonderful native proficients to learn
the first principles of the Great Game. The result is that he distinguishes
himself, while yet a stripling, by capturing in the high Himilayas the
credentials and dispatches of a formidable Russian spy, and—this is all.
Kim eventually comes
upon the army regiment that his father had belonged to and makes the
acquaintance of the colonel. Colonel Creighton recognizes Kim's great talent
for blending into the many diverse cultures of India and trains him to become a
spy and a mapmaker for the British army. The adventures that Kim undergoes as a
spy, his endearing relationship with the lama, and the skill and craftsmanship
of Kipling's writing have all caused this adventurous and descriptive—if controversial—novel to persist as a minor classic of historical
English literature.
The novel is a
delightful read. However, this is definitely not a children’s novel, nor is it
of trivial things – there is a search for eternal life and involvement as a spy
in a coming war. Poverty and hardship is everywhere. Nonetheless, the novel
does seem an excuse for adventure for its own sake. We learn a good deal from
the lama about his notion of spirituality, but we learn virtually nothing of
the power and role of the River of Healing, and we know almost nothing of the
coming war itself. They are sort of teasers or anchors for the story, yet they
each remain on the fringes.
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