Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was, as T.S. Eliot recognised, a supreme ballad-maker, a storyteller who relished the adventures and characters encountered in the wide world, and a man whose sympathies lay with those whose work and dedication sustained civic and political institutions. With humour, rhythmical skill and a gift for the unforgettable phrase, Kipling's poems have passed into common currency: 'If -', 'Mandalay', 'Gunga Din'... Harry Ricketts includes these in his selection, and many more. He also introduces a less familiar Kipling, lyrical, funny, compassionate, capable of bleak and savage satire. Often seen only as a laureate of empire, Kipling also speaks for the dispossessed and the victims of war. His fingerprints, Ricketts writes, 'are smudged all over twentieth-century literature': he affected Sassoon, Joyce, Auden and Brecht, and he still provides the necessary words at times of crisis.
Books in English for every reader
Ready to explore new worlds? Dive into our books in English.
Escritor, periodista, novelista, poeta y cuentista británico nacido en Bombay, India, lo que seguramente le sirvió de inspiración para su obra. Publicó su primer volumen de relatos, Cuentos de las colinas, en 1887. Entre sus obras más conocidas, muchas de ellas llevadas a la gran pantalla, destacan: El libro de la Selva (1894), Kim (1901, El hombre que pudo reinar (1888) o los poemas Gunda Din (1890) e If (1895. Todas ellas promovieron que fuera el primer autor inglés galardonado con el Premio oble de literatura en 1907.