The Best Short Stories (Paperback - 2018)

Rudyard Kipling’s works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”; “Three and An Extra”; “On Greenhow Hill”; “The Limitations of Pambé Serang”; “The Disturber of Traffic”; “The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot”; “The Ship that Found Herself”; and “The Maltese Cat”, among many others.

“Baa Baa, Black Sheep” is a semi-autobiographical short story that deals with the unkind treatment that Kipling received between the ages of 6 and 11 in a foster home in Southsea. “Three and An Extra” is the earliest appearance of the character, Mrs. Hauksbee in Kipling’s books. It was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette in 1886, and first in book form in Plain Tales from the Hills, in 1888. It reports a defeat of “the clever, witty, brilliant and sparkling” Mrs. Hauksbee by Mrs. Cusack-Bremmil—in the former’s predatory pursuit of Mr. Cusack-Bremmil. His only slum story, “The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot” was published in 1890. It is based on Kipling’s observation of London’s lower classes. Set in the East End, it recounts the story of a young, honest woman who becomes a relief worker in the slums after being deserted by her abusive husband.

Kipling’s short stories remain in print and have garnered high praise from writers like Poul Anderson, Jorge Luis Borges, and Randall Jarrell who wrote: “After you have read Kipling’s fifty or seventy-five best stories you realize that few men have written this many stories of this much merit, and that very few have written more and better stories.”

Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865–18 January 1936), was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children. He was born in Bombay, and was taken by his family to England when he was just five years old. Memories of India had by then been indelibly created in his mind. He came back to India at the age of seventeen and was supposed to be assistant editor of a small local newspaper, the Civil and Military Gazette. But his unstoppable urge to write made him an avid writer. In 1886, he published his first collection of verse, Departmental Ditties. The new editor of the newspaper allowed more creative freedom and Kipling was asked to contribute short stories. Thus began his journey as a short-story writer.

Kipling concentrated on collecting material for what later became Just So Stories (1902), the year after Kim was first published. The first decade of the 20th century saw Kipling at the height of his popularity. In 1906, he wrote the song “Land of our Birth, We Pledge to Thee”. He also wrote two science fiction short stories, With the Night Mail (1905) and As Easy As A.B.C. (1912).

In 1907, Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration”. He was the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship, and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined.

Kipling’s other works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), and many short stories, including “The Disturber of Traffic”; “The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot”; and “The Ship that Found Herself”. His poems include “Mandalay” (1890), “Gunga Din” (1890), “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” (1919), and “The White Man’s Burden”. He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story, and his children’s books are enduring classics of children’s literature. Critics have described his work as exhibiting “a versatile and luminous narrative gift”.